CALL ME MASTER

Calling me boss 

    Does that make more of a man

Do I have a higher qualification than you?

Are you in my employ?

Why did you grant me such a status?

Are you calling me a boss

    Does that make you less of a person?

Is you three-fifth man?

Compromise with a pen in hand

Banneker letters caused him to have carpel tunnel

Why do you call me boss

    Do you need direction or can't make your own decisions

What is the purpose of a word that puts you in a lower class?

Is it a nice way to call me white trash?

My education and the status of my degree does not say that

Don't call me boss

    It sounds like your loss

That word was chosen to hide the domination of racism

It lurks within the context and tone 

If it was 400 years ago would you be calling me master.

Don't call me boss

Call me friend or call me brother

©Thomas J. Dooley 2024  

NO ONE'S BOSS

Do you give a thought to what you say
Always use words in a different way
Does God even understand you when you pray

Don't want to be no one's boss
Have no reason to control it all
Only those things close to my heart

No longer can I be happy today
Now it became an orientational social name
To be gay will never mean the same

Don't want to be no one's boss
Have no reason to have the control of you
You're not a minstrel you don't have to shine my shoes

Innocent words use as racial slurs
Generational slave mentality in just one word
You have to make mistakes before you learn

Don't want to be no one's boss
Have nothing to prove
Just call me brother or friend

©Copyright Thomas Dooley 2020

In a comment, I got on another poetry site to this poem where say "We all need to treat each other with respect, my friend."

Not fully understanding the context of the comment. I said, the word BOSS is so overused and miss understood its definition is a person in charge of a worker or organization. It comes from the Ditch language BAAS and in America, it was used to replace another word that word is MASTER because it was too reminiscent of the slavery past. I find it more of annoyance word when being called that so I see it as the person saying it is more disrespecting to themselves than the one that they are saying it to. When writing poetry I do some research when using metaphors on any topic. So what I am saying with the poem respect your self just as much as you respect your self.