Job

¹ It's a life sentence to hard labor.

² and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,

³ months of aimlessness, nights of misery!

⁴ I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I'm fed up!

⁵ My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.

⁶ and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!

⁷ These eyes have had their last look at goodness.

⁸ even while you're looking, there'll be nothing left to look at.

⁹ those who go to the grave never come back.

¹⁰ never again will friends drop in for coffee.

¹¹ I'm laying it all out on the table; my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.

¹² the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?

¹³ A little nap will lift my spirits,'

¹⁴ and frighten me with ghosts

¹⁵ than face this kind of life any longer.

¹⁶ Let me alone! There's nothing to my life—it's nothing but smoke.

¹⁷ that you even give them the time of day?

¹⁸ looking in on them to see how they're doing?

¹⁹ Can't you even let me spit in peace?

²⁰ You're responsible for every human being. Don't you have better things to do than pick on me? Why make a federal case out of me?

²¹ and start me off with a clean slate? The way things are going, I'll soon be dead. You'll look high and low, but I won't be around."