The poem “What Work Is” by Philip Levine examines the conflict between the speaker’s connection with their sibling and their conception of labor. When they mistake another guy in a queue for their brother, the story takes place in the Ford Motor Company factory in Highland Park, Illinois, and the speaker starts to consider what exactly constitutes employment. The poem eventually focuses more on the speaker’s inability to empathize with or comprehend the toll that waiting in line simply to be turned away takes on a person rather than on the speaker’s perspective of and connection with their sister.

What Work Is Summary