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
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