call center collapse

a thriving india is not long for this world
and the c-student is fucked
beginning today
the metropolis of modernization and cubicles
is in a death spiral against chatgpt
millions of unemployed buddhists
praying hopefully to kali krishna and rama
a flat earth epiphany of economics
my mid-tier manager had no skills of his own
unless you count bravado and bluster
he kept saying
*your attitude is not helping you here*
unable to process any empathetic or emotional connection
*family first* he said
but didn’t mean it
whiplash backsplash bartender that he was
a journalist and college graduate
now comfortable
executive
expendable cog with no discernable skills
beyond enthusiastic praise of his ideas
borrowed from the people paid to standup in worship
contractors vendors FTEs
provide the delusion
of his value-add
mvp

minimal viable product

skilless will re-matriculate
and be lost
his journalism skills reviewing 90’s pop rock bands
dusty from disuse
now regenerative text passes for news
taste

india and brazil
cooked and naked
crumble into the sea
harvesting losses
reboot revive and repurpose my creative drive
he has nothing
a wife who denies his genius
two sons
toddle across the soccer field
and he provides his only value in life
dads
doing
coaching

skyscrapers of empty headsets and hyperconnected people-farms
his supermassive black hole
showing
in his slowing run across the mini-field toward the mini-goal
and his mini-life
the image above is backward
words from oblivion
formerly thriving india
to the world

12-24-23

<<  back to without : poetry index |