Reflections on unemployment: Alisa Hauser

 Alisa Hauser posted this on the hardworking facebook wall.  I thought it was worth sharing. 

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In how many rooms
Are good Americans
Holding
Tiny phones
Pressed to ear
Busy signals
Loud &
Clear?

The 8-8-8 #
The call-in date
The simple prompts
One imagines hearing
After getting through,
Press one! Press two!

Do they keep trying
Or sigh in frustration
After three dozen
calls, Or do they
Keep On
Going, these unlucky few,
7.8%
& rising,
These Americans
That didn’t
Make the skeleton crews:

A-list players
That got too testy, too expensive,
B-listers
That didn’t help the bottom line, enough
C listers & team players
Given no instructions
Except, ‘Don’t Come Back’

The voices inside your head,
The taunting voice, the one that says
It’s not like you’re calling the cable company
& wires are down, or you need help
you just bought something expensive & complicated
& you’re the customer
& you’re always right
& you’re following up on a warranty,
No! no! no!
the voices tell you
It’s not like that
Not like that at all