Thursday, August 12, 2021

Socialist Sonnet No. 45

 Domestic System


From dawn through to dusk into candle light

The woman spun her wheel and wound the thread

To follow where her husband’s shuttle led,

And so their cottage passed from day to night,

But such domestic industry was doomed

Come the spinning mill and weaving shed,

Working lives by the factory clock were led

And the death of home working was assumed.

 

Looms and spinning machines are long since gone,

Mills are desirable apartments now,

Yarn displaced by fibre optics, that’s how

Domestic industry, these days, is done.


Labour remains what the day is made for

And still more hours are worked than are paid for.


D. A.

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