deepundergroundpoetry.com
Soft Marches
I watched LGBTQIA+ march and I marched
When I could
A tight community loud enough to be understood
I watched the carriers march, demanding safer conditions
Nationwide, to show how bad it could be for Americans
I watch now as Hollywood uproots problems of compensation
The world rallies around the unity of their proclamation
And finally I March every time the nurses call
The group is always small
Two or three to represent all
Standing at the line again
While four hundred grease the cog
All complaining
It's not safe
The pay is insultingly small
I ask them
Will you join next week
The response
'What is the point?'
So I watch now
As I watched through COVID
A female field that would never be joined
So enjoy
Your meager salary
Equated to that of a secretary
Cause this nurse
Is tired of being the adversary
Advisory
With a weak army.
Healthcare is a right. So pay us like we deliver it monetarily, but mostly, show some respect. It is a reflection of how nurses are seen when they are expected to give life because they made an oath, then be taken advantage of that path in any way healthcare can. It is shown in our meager salary that has raised at the same slow ass rate as everyone else's until recently. People are demanding 15 + dollars an hour for regular jobs and here in Florida, a new graduate nurse can't make more than 26-27 an hour. I can assure you, we hold your lives in our hands. And this is what you think we deserve as compensation. I say you. I mean every nurse that has never spoken against this in a serious way, at their union, at their huddles. Shame on you. I can't help but think that if this was a male dominated field, I'd be making the six year service salary I deserve. And it's not 29 bucks an hour. I travel to make what I should as a nurse. Everyone loves to talk smack, like we make so much traveling. You have the locals charging 3000 plus to rent cause of travel nurses around every major city in America. It's a comment I hear all of the time from my friends who rent out. If it's a travel nurses I increase the price. I'm so done with this place. I can wholeheartedly say I no longer get angry when I hear of another group stepping up and getting what they need. Nurses should have said enough is enough during COVID. Corporate medicine screwed us every way they could and didn't give AF about the patients dying, disease spreading. They put us on the front lines without any weapons and told us to fight a war for chump change and we did nothing to defend ourselves. So it is a testament of my breakup with healthcare that I now write this. I can no longer feel passionate anger for you, healthcare, America, so it means I am ready to move on. They say when you passionately hate, you passionately love and your story is not over. I am no longer passionate about this. Go figure.
When I could
A tight community loud enough to be understood
I watched the carriers march, demanding safer conditions
Nationwide, to show how bad it could be for Americans
I watch now as Hollywood uproots problems of compensation
The world rallies around the unity of their proclamation
And finally I March every time the nurses call
The group is always small
Two or three to represent all
Standing at the line again
While four hundred grease the cog
All complaining
It's not safe
The pay is insultingly small
I ask them
Will you join next week
The response
'What is the point?'
So I watch now
As I watched through COVID
A female field that would never be joined
So enjoy
Your meager salary
Equated to that of a secretary
Cause this nurse
Is tired of being the adversary
Advisory
With a weak army.
Healthcare is a right. So pay us like we deliver it monetarily, but mostly, show some respect. It is a reflection of how nurses are seen when they are expected to give life because they made an oath, then be taken advantage of that path in any way healthcare can. It is shown in our meager salary that has raised at the same slow ass rate as everyone else's until recently. People are demanding 15 + dollars an hour for regular jobs and here in Florida, a new graduate nurse can't make more than 26-27 an hour. I can assure you, we hold your lives in our hands. And this is what you think we deserve as compensation. I say you. I mean every nurse that has never spoken against this in a serious way, at their union, at their huddles. Shame on you. I can't help but think that if this was a male dominated field, I'd be making the six year service salary I deserve. And it's not 29 bucks an hour. I travel to make what I should as a nurse. Everyone loves to talk smack, like we make so much traveling. You have the locals charging 3000 plus to rent cause of travel nurses around every major city in America. It's a comment I hear all of the time from my friends who rent out. If it's a travel nurses I increase the price. I'm so done with this place. I can wholeheartedly say I no longer get angry when I hear of another group stepping up and getting what they need. Nurses should have said enough is enough during COVID. Corporate medicine screwed us every way they could and didn't give AF about the patients dying, disease spreading. They put us on the front lines without any weapons and told us to fight a war for chump change and we did nothing to defend ourselves. So it is a testament of my breakup with healthcare that I now write this. I can no longer feel passionate anger for you, healthcare, America, so it means I am ready to move on. They say when you passionately hate, you passionately love and your story is not over. I am no longer passionate about this. Go figure.
Published 29th Jul 2023
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29th Jul 2023 6:51pm
Nurses aren't just people. They are critical infrastructure for the rest of us.
They are a thousand times more important than cops and the government ought to pay for their educations entirely.
The fact that this country doesn't do that tells us how messed up this country's priorities really are.
It's time to organize!
They are a thousand times more important than cops and the government ought to pay for their educations entirely.
The fact that this country doesn't do that tells us how messed up this country's priorities really are.
It's time to organize!
Yes it is time to organize. It's just hard when you try to explain what you've just described to people who work in the field. They have either been indoctrinated, beaten down, or both. I just know that not enough of us see the importance of unionization. We have a lot of monopoly in health care systems in Florida, so most nurses don't even try. For example, Lee county has one hospital system across two big cities called Lee health. HCA hospital system is the largest in the nation, and they are in every community. Most of these are not unionized. I reckon in most communities, big and small, there is a monopolized hospital system. Then you have monopolized physicians groups in each city. It's getting worse. So as I see it, patients rights and choices are being taken away and healthcare is run just like every other business. It shouldn't be like this, but it is. The nurses not standing up in unison is a systemic failure that short changes their worth and the worth of the patients. And I have no solution to the problem. Perhaps a union between nurses and the community. They can't ignore both right? Idk. You can only do so much locally.
29th Jul 2023 8:31pm
Monopolization is a big part of the problem everywhere, and is a key feature of the late stage capitalism, mentioned by Bernie Sanders, and a gateway condition to the state fascism now seen in Florida and soon to be everywhere else unless people get together and speak up against it.
The history books tell us what we need to do, but so many are too busy working their asses off to take the time to read about it. Some of us older folks have a clue, but as you said, we are close to powerless as individuals.
The history books tell us what we need to do, but so many are too busy working their asses off to take the time to read about it. Some of us older folks have a clue, but as you said, we are close to powerless as individuals.
30th Jul 2023 1:43am
Yes. The separation is so deep I cannot even begin to describe the various pathways in which the tentacles of disconnect have spread. Unity is all I have ever fought for, always. But it's time to start a family. I cannot do this here. Especially if I have a female child. No way in hell. Thanks for the conversation, I am always happy to meet a fellow dissenter.
