a vacation poem about feeling guilty when i shouldn’t

by Fred Aiken

i stay up too late whenever i’m on vacation
from my 9-to-5, and sometimes it feels justified,
but i can’t help but feel a little guilty,
and yet i know that’s the weberian protestant work ethic
instilled within me since i was a child,
that i cannot get away from, no matter how much i logic my way out,
so on this vacation i’ll try to make
my unproductivity look productive, you know,
in order to trick myself into thinking i’m not a bad person