Creatively Unwaged

For the length of my adult life
I have been used to having to do
what I wanted to do for free;
nobody would pay me
for what they wanted done
when it might have been
to my financial advantage.

I was in my thirties when I volunteered
take telephone calls on a helpline
that supported the queer and depressed
across all of Northern Ireland.

I stayed until the phones stopped ringing
because the internet had become the in thing.

I was forty when I volunteered
to refurbish hand tools 
that would otherwise go to waste
for them to be sent to countries
where electricity is scarce
and they were bound to be valued.

It was remarkable
that I stayed for a decade
with that charity, even though
I was not very good at what I did.
Still, as 'a poof', I was useful proof
of their policy of inclusivity.

Finally there is this blog,
started 1st of Feb, 2011.
I was so caught up in writing it
that I never noticed the decade date
when it passed. 

All I can hope
is that between this blog
and the prose blogs I have written
my writing style has improve
since I started-if it is not 'there' yet
there something I can do about it-keep going.....