Yes Please, Always
The things that keep me up these days
aren’t dreams but thoughts that fray—
influencers selling ease online,
while we confuse grind with shine.
South Africans boast of work,
of ethic, sweat, and daily shirk.
Yet home’s cleaned by someone poor,
at worst, once a week—mostly more.
We apologise for flat tyres,
for falling short of hired liars.
We say “yes please” to every chore,
while wondering what we’re sorry for.
The world sees us with tilted eyes,
nodding at effort wrapped in lies.
We’re not hardworking—
have ethic, just polite
trained so kindly to dim instead of fight.
Image Generated by ChatGPT - Yes please, Always
About this Poem
Yes please, Always is a bold, introspective poem that examines the subtle contradictions in how we speak about work, class, and identity; particularly as South Africans navigating external perceptions and internalised scripts. It's a poem about politeness as survival, about calling out hustle culture without shouting, and about the quiet exhaustion of always saying “yes please” when your spirit is screaming no. Somewhere between satire and elegy, this piece asks: who are we really working for and are we actually working?
