Identity Poem (A Job’s Not Who You Are)

For twenty five years I was that man,

That man who’d get up some time after six

And take his biggest risk – cornflakes or wheatabix?

That man who fell out of bed and fell into work,

Fell for the ‘Rover’, over the ‘Merc’

And the ‘Beamer’ – ‘cause they were for dreamers.

That man who’d got the beautiful house,

The beautiful wife, the beautiful kids,

I was a genius… yeah…

You should have seen us,

Happy with my lot and everything I’d got,

That I’d worked for with my job, called a career,

The something that was getting me there…from here.

But I never got there.

Me and five thousand ex-Rover colleagues never got there -

Where ever there was,

“We know it isn’t fair, Spoz,

Our hands are tied, the management lied,

Now don’t scream and shout,

But the light at the end of the tunnel’s gone out”.

Understatement – I was dazed

Understatement – I was confused

Understatement – I was in shock

But I was no stick of rock.

Cut me in half and it didn’t say Rover - it was over …

I was punch drunk, I was floored,

But it was time to sever that umbilical cord.

Find a new identity -

The one I knew I was meant to be.

‘Cause a job isn’t who you are, it’s what you do,

There are bigger things in life that define the likes of me and you,

Like that little fishy from your dad,

The tiny egg from your mom,

A sprinkle from a miracle and the two become one,

You or me – see?

But that’s just biology,

It happens every day,

Because your God and my God kind of made it that way.

It’s the trail you tread, not as a job but a vocation,

From every nation and global location,

That when mixed with your genes, no I.D. card can describe,

The different identities from one common tribe.