I sit in my little cottage 

Surrounded by meager possessions 

And you reign in your high castle 

Surrounded by your golden pretties

Many times I feel the hungry mouth 

Devouring me bit by bit

While you gobble up 

The meanest of my wants and needs

You dressed in your whites and

Me digging through the dark 

Searching for a glimmer

Knowing full well that you own the sun

Sometimes a shadow that I chase blindly

Illuminates my way

But you take my shadows

And turn them to profits to sell back to me

My days are numbered by the hours of labor

My body must endure 

While you count the cost of my

Meanest drudge by the returns it brings

Janice Kuykendall