Occupation

Paul Mason

Spend years learning how to become something:

then become it:

that’s it then:

dentist: lawyer: optometrist:

atrophy and putrefaction:

certificates on the desk and walls of the office:

reasons and motives frozen:

c–u–t:

to fit the [frames]:

that’s employment: the ossifying of intentions:

shaping the means to fit the ends:

then the mould sets and the means cease to matter:

the ritual and the repetition:

actions formulated: motives, means and ends encapsulated:

concentrated in the necessary relations:

patients and clients:

the instruments become the life:

the life becomes the instruments:

drill bits and polishers:

contracts and statutes:

optics and eye charts:

there’s the pattern: and so it goes:

gum disease and tooth decay:

libel and delictual damages:

spectacles and contact lenses:

templates for life against Life:

occupation itself:

that’s the occupational hazard.

Featured on 8 April 2021