An Office Cleaner's Lament

by Sarah Dew, Charlotte Oliver - The Dark Store

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about

An Office Cleaner's Lament is part of The Dark Store, an Arts Council-funded, hour-long radio ballad. It is a collection of spoken word and nine original folk songs, highlighting the significance of hidden labour and the lives of essential workers throughout history to the present day. Woven out of many threads, from historical texts to testimonies gathered during online writing sessions during lockdown, the stories told include that of a governess, the herring girls and miners, as well as contemporary supermarket and ‘dark store’ workers, a Glaswegian lorry driver, and NHS nurses in the pandemic. All of which have been worked into poetry, folk music and song by a collaboration of writer Charlotte Oliver and composer Sarah Dew.
The Dark Store provides a platform where voices are heard and invisibility is challenged, respect is promoted, and the creativity and spirit of those working in the dark is celebrated.

lyrics

Lyrics by Charlotte Oliver. An Office Cleaner’s Lament

Up before the sun,
happy all alone,
boss of my own work,
that’s a massive perk.

Dirty ways revealed,
Filth unconcealed,
Foil wrappers sing
of your office fling.

I don’t judge your mess
but you don’t impress;
you think you’re better – I’ll wager,
I’m cleaner by name and by nature!

Order into chaos,
that's why you pay us,
Hands sore and scaly,
wipe your slate clean daily.

Their aim's so poor,
it ends up on the floor,
But stains, smells, soiling
keep me toiling.

My job is maligned,
but tidy room, tidy mind -
without me mopping,
your profits will be dropping.

credits

released August 10, 2022
Lyrics: Charlotte Oliver
Music and production: Sarah Dew
Vocals: Sarah Dew, Charlotte Oliver, Jaye Lewis, Sally Lidgley, Pat Edmond, Karen Chalmers, Nia Davidson
Live violin: Clare Shaw

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about

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The Dark Store Scarborough, UK

Sarah Dew is a sound artist and composer whose audio installations have been commissioned and broadcast on radio stations including BBC, Canada and throughout the UK.
Charlotte Oliver is a poet who has been commissioned to write poetry by such varied institutions as the BBC and Scarborough’s South Cliff Gardens. Her work has been published in anthologies and journals throughout the world. ... more

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