the layoff

more the norm than the exception

in this wonderful capitalist rape room

where coming into work can mean

leaving early without a job & a

pink slip, with a pat on the back & a

“thanks for being such a good worker”---

armed with all the facetious nonsense

that emanates from the mouths of

higher-ups, whose jobs are just a little

more secure than your own,

making them bent further over the table

with the drill shoved so deep up inside

them that you couldn’t pull it out with

a f*****g forklift,

if you even dared to try.

 

and on the day you come in &

they’ve taken away some of your coworkers,

leaving you “alive” as far as the workforce

goes (for one more day), you feel an odd

sense of guilt & blame, like it should have,

like it could have, like it will be you---

much like on imagines a survivor of a plane

crash sees the deaths of their co-flyers as

a precursor to their own fessing up to

that certainty of mortality,

you close your mouth with a sudden horror---

because these people were your friends,

as far as the workplace is concerned---

you’ve spent hours, weeks & years with

them & their fate has been decided with a

f*****g red pen & a greeting at the door

when they were coming in,

because the higher-ups didn’t even have the

goddamned decency to give them a call

prior to the beginning of the work day---

so now, they hang their heads, some cry,

and in the eyes of all of them is a new

terror…a head full of “what am i gonna do?”

adding them to the legions of

america’s growing unemployed---

oh the wonderful “land of the free,”

where you can smile as long as you are

f*****g

economically

viable.

 

tomorrow, they go online to file for

unemployment, to start the hardest job that

there is---

looking

for a

job.

 

and you miss them.

and you hope the best for them.

and you know the cards are stacked against them.

and you know neither obama or romney is gonna

f*****g help them.

and you go to sleep so you can get up in the morning &

go back to the slaughterhouse,

hoping today isn’t your day (always tense & ready for your

time) &

hoping that wherever they are,

that they are ok.