Thank You For Holding
Headset digs a groove behind my ears
stale coffee cooling by the keys
Another ticket on the dashboard blinking red like some disease
Script taped to the monitor tells me which lies to say in which soft way
Out in the world the server’s down
in here I’m just meat for the day.
Line one lights up with a man already halfway through his rage
Swearing that I ruined his business
like I pulled wires from his cage
I say my ID the way they trained me
smile pressed flat into my tone
“Sir I really understand
” while my own bank breaks at home.
Thank you for holding
thank you for waiting while my patience burns
You scream down the line like I pulled all the wrong returns
I’m just a voice in a box farm, spine shaped like a bow
Resetting your password while I can’t reset my sow. (No
weak rhyme). Let’s try again: Resetting your password while I can’t reset my head. (Better).
Next caller’s some kid in tears
lost their work for school all year
Every sentence hits my ribs like an old skin of my own fear
I walk them through the steps slow
hear the panic in their breath
Think about my overdue notices stacking up like quiet death.
Supervisor paces with a clipboard
checking call times like a god
Docking pay for “non-compliance” if you sound a little odd
We’re rated on our fake empathy
on how we swallow all this bile
They want comfort in thirty seconds and a fix in half that while.
Thank you for holding
thank you for waiting while I fall behind
You need your system resurrected
I need a break from my own mind
I’m just a voice in a box farm, spine shaped like a bow
Talking strangers off their ledges while I live inside the low. (Better rhyme).
On lunch I sit in the stairwell where the signal barely lives
Scroll my own collection notices
the kind no company forgives
My landlord’s last text message says “we really need to talk
” While I’m back at my station coaching someone through a rough patch.
There’s a woman on line seven who just needs one thing to work
Her voice shakes like an engine that some bastard used and shirked
She apologizes for crying
says “I know it’s not your fault
” I mute myself a second so my own tears don’t halt.
Night shift hits
fluorescent hum turns cruel instead of bright
We cut the staff in half and double volume overnight
I listen to one more stranger cuss me out till they feel clean
Then heaves this practiced sigh and says “you people are obscene.”