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 ****ing 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 ****ing 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 ****ing 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 ****ing 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.