Diction of Employment

Diction of Employment

Somebody else’s hands are

doing my hand’s work today. 

On a keyboard that was never mine

In a chair in a country never mine

Somebody’s backing 18 wheels up to a dock

Somebody’s working a bucket and a mop

Somebody’s puttin’ on a uniform

Somebody’s answering phones “Please hold.”

Hey! Somebody’s taking money, taking orders, taking shit

Making change @ window number one

Yo! Somebody’s handing out bags and the coffee all saucy

@ window number two

Somebody’s opening a register with a

log in learned last week @

HR’s health insurance, drug testing

You-too-late-two-days-you-gone orientation.

One is opening a classroom door

One is opening email

in a cubical where she is under orders to keep

her voice low and her opinions to herself.

One is making lobby coffee

turning up case lights ‘til the financial

product line glitters like cross sell and

cold calls warm to Midas’ touch

One is stretching 3 forty-hour employees

Like pizza dough to fill 150 store hours

Calling home “I

have to pull a double shift.”

$omebody’s getting paid. 

Not me.

Somebody else’s hands are

doing my hands’ work today.

                                                                                             

 LFM   #2  1.9.14