Five Days of Telephonic Hell
Five days of hell
on the phone, selling lies
and pieces of the Titanic carpet.
A sinking ship of a company
with a captain who gropes and leers
and a crew who watches it happen.
Five days of pain
standing all day with no breaks.
My feet are sore, my back aches
My voice cracks, my ears ring.
But I can't complain or quit
or I'll lose my needed pay.
Five days of shame
enduring harassment and abuse.
From my boss, from my coworkers
from the customers, from myself.
I feel dirty, I feel worthless
I feel trapped, I feel hopeless.
Five days of hell
that's all I could take.
I walked out and never looked back.
I left behind the Titanic carpet
And the monsters who made me suffer.
I'm free, and yet, I’m still drowning.
*I wrote this poem on January 23, 2024, as part of a ’30 days of poetry’ January challenge. This was day 23 and the prompt was: You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit: Use one of the worst job-related memories you can think of as a creative writing prompt. I worked for five horrifying days as a telemarketer. It was/is a very traumatic experience in my life. I chose to write it in a slightly humorous way. One day I will write a full blog about my job from hell. I wrote two poems about my job. The other one is called “Clocking Out of Chaos.”
Copyright © Courtney Hubbert | Year Posted 2024
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment