800

 

 

 

i’ve learned a new language;

a new way of speaking.

linguistically

it’s sort of like the special olympics on speed.

 

i blame my job.

 

blabbering the same blab

to the same half-awake clients,

phonetics gets lost in the phone-lines

and my 13^th cup of joe.

 

now, i know i should take pride

in oratory excellence

after all i AM a devourer of words,

 

but i’m losing syllables as

osmosis by obligation

turns eloquence into efficiency.

 

“if you have any questions or have information regarding this event please call us back at 1-800-34onedayi’llgetoutofthisrun-onsentenceofajob.

 

thank you".

the answering machine always appreciates politeness.

 

and

communication becomes another cubicle

to fit your personality.

 

meaningless monotony

mangles my metaphors

morphing my melodies

into just more of the same.

 

at least i still have alliteration.

 

my girl is getting tired of asking me to repeat, asking me to repeat, asking me to repeat

what i just mumbled,

 

but

 

sometimes saying

 

i love you

 

carries a toll free tone.  

 

Author's Note

the original ending is
"And sometimes instead of saying
I love you
I�m giving her an 800 number." - which do you think is better? or makes more sense?

Reviews

[Staci Brown]

"And sometimes instead of saying
I love you
I'm giving her an 800 number."

that's my choice! :D i loved this piece! lol of course having worked in call centers myself i can definitely relate to your agony and misery and certainly your wit and brilliance in shedding some light on this issue! :D

Faerie Blessings!

--faerie whisper (breaking the silence...)

[RedChickPoet]

As "your girl", I vote for the 'toll free tone' ending.

I find you amazing (as usual) that you wrote a piece about this. Maybe it's a grave shift thing to have your words become mumbles. On day shift, I always found my repetitive customer dialogs become MORE enunciated as the day wore on to make up for my fatigue. At the end of the day, I sounded like I was speaking to a slow child. LOL.

Thank you for expressing your exploration of us and how life is. You have such talent with picking apart the simple/complex situations and filtering them through your beautifully poetic heart and mind.

[Gandré]

This was self-referential to the job on a telephone and to those whose paths are always smoothly paved and you have to keep the politeness .....when they walk to their goal straight, one has to develop a certain state of mind. Delightful writing, refreshing my mind you are always using great metaphors, they make me smile. I loved this:

after all i AM a devourer of words,



but i'm losing syllables as

osmosis by obligation

turns eloquence into efficiency. -----this being unconscious of an idea and speaking it must be eyperience on its own..... so words are passing the semipermeable membrame from a less concentrated or imporant world to a more important one that what those lines told me. It is like one is having his own universe and then emerging to someone's else universe. fantastic writing. loved it.

[Emily B]

awwwww, I get so lost in the jargon of ISO and the Business Managment System. Legalese that I could say directly in the words of a kindergardner.

I love this. It's always a pleasure to talk to someone who talks to you instead of at you.

[Sel Whiteley]

This is beautiful. I admire the way in which you've captured how the monotony of telephone work can mean that you become some monotone mumbler. I work on the phones too (...I'm doing fundraising in a call centre...) so I can really relate to what your expressing. I think the end is so beautiful and romantic, the way you express your love. The poem flows really naturally and I love the sonics.

[Kaela Craven]

wow, that was great. I can't decide which ending is better lol.

But I really liked it. I get so enthusiastic about poetry. This poem wasn't epic or anything but I still totally loved it :-)

[Mimozi]

Oooh i like both endings, although the way you have it now is I think more evocative as it gives the reader room to read and feel their own ending.

This piece perfectly describes the curse of the day job to the creative mind.

Excellent.

[Blade & Blood (The ..]

Either way, I like it! I like the humor in it. Sometimes a bored tone makes others laugh. ^^ LOL! It must suck having to work at those call centers. My goodness!

lol Excellently written. There's a lot of style in here... amazing style! :)

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood

[Colleen C Dunphy]

I like the toll free tone better.
And I am a phone CSR (sort of) and I so loved this, though we are an 888 number.
This is a wonderful end to my runonsentence kind of week.
Thank you for sharing.
xoxo
Lee