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Alan Dugan's poem "Prayer" offers a gritty, candid exploration of the cyclic nature of work, economic necessity, and personal satisfaction. It serves as a satirical prayer to a higher power, encapsulating the speaker's frustrations with societal expectations and the pressures of maintaining financial stability. The poem captures the inherent contradictions of capitalist society—where work both empowers and oppresses—and the personal toll this takes on the individual.

The poem begins straightforwardly with a plea: "God, I need a job because I need money." This direct approach sets a pragmatic tone, grounding the poem in the everyday concerns of many working-class individuals. The speaker then outlines the pleasures of life that money affords—whiskey, women, ultimate weapons, and class—highlighting a materialistic view of success and enjoyment that is accessible only through economic means.

However, the lack of money brings immediate consequences: "But if I have no money, then my wife gets mad at me, I can’t drink well, the armed oppress me, and no boss pays me money." This section reflects the social and personal degradation that accompanies financial instability, illustrating how quickly one can lose status, comfort, and autonomy without financial resources.

As the poem progresses, the speaker describes the benefits of employment: getting paid, respectful treatment by police, and the ability to enjoy simple pleasures like having a drink. Yet, these benefits are undercut by the reality of the work itself, which involves being indoors all day, taking "shit," and making "weapons to kill outsiders with." This stark depiction of the speaker's job highlights the moral and ethical compromises often inherent in work, especially in industries that contribute to broader societal harms.

The conflict between enjoying the fruits of labor and the degradation of performing the labor is poignantly captured: "I miss the air and smell that paid work stinks when done for someone else’s profit." Here, Dugan touches on a core aspect of Marxist theory—the alienation of the worker from the products of their labor, which not only stinks literally but metaphorically in benefiting someone else’s profit at the worker's expense.

This realization leads to a brief period of resignation and enjoyment—"enjoy a few flush days in air, drunk"—followed by the inevitable return to the job market: "then I need a job again. I’m caught in a steel cycle." The poem concludes with the acknowledgment of a "steel cycle," a powerful metaphor for the inescapable, rigid structure of work and economic need that binds the speaker, symbolizing the unyielding, mechanical nature of societal and economic systems.

"Prayer" is both a lament and a starkly realistic portrayal of the labor cycle in a capitalist society. It exposes the human cost of economic survival—how individuals are often forced into morally compromising jobs that sustain their material needs but erode their spirits and moral integrity. Dugan's prayer is not just a request for employment but a deeper plea for liberation from the dehumanizing cycle of work and consumption that defines much of modern life.


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