8 Hour Days

Beauty is everything, the song declares, and immediately prices it. No man will ever know what that means, only the woman holding his hand knows the pit growing inside him. His life is itemised like a uniform, clothes black, dinner packed, long days and nights away from her, her whole job the saving of his face.

She names the role, feeling like a preacher’s wife, slaving every day and night for children she does not share, carrying him and Jesus Christ both as long as he comes home. When beauty is everything comes back around she takes it back, beautiful and free even as he takes what he thinks is his.