Push a broom around
don't let it all get you down
You know it's just another day;
In a little while, you'll be free
of this weekday family
Why is it that you feel afraid?
You smell it in the air
but everyone denies it's there
They all await the final word
in all you fantasized
this is not the way things died
funny how a life gets blurred
Tear down the tables, kill the lights
The days will now be like the nights
and if a mouse crawls in and wonders why it ended so soon
it's not the end of your world,
it's just the end of June.
Come together, try to laugh
think of the good, forget the chaff
wish that you were gone, know that you can't go
Wait for a call on the p.a.
rehearse the things you'd like to say
tell a story, tell a joke
You cannot sweep this doom away
you can't count until they say
it's a bad dream, gone to the light
every hand's a clock that's counting down
every moment trembles on the sound
so walk away before the tears begin to bite
Tear down the walls, burn down the doors
No one will see it any more
And if it stands until the dimming of the moon
it's not the end of your world,
it's just the end of June.
Come let us draw together
hold each other like we never did
Come cry upon my shoulder
o'er what we should have said and never did
Come take a moment
tell me how you really feel
Come walk with me outside
tell me how you really feel....
----------------------------------------------------
Today was the last day. We three cutters were given 2 assignments that took us a total of an hour at the very best. We stood around. We made messes so we could clean them up if anyone who cared came around. A couple people had races balancing a mop in the palm of their hands.
We discussed all the rumours floating around. Told stories and jokes. Took our last break.
Somewhere around 10:30, we got called to one last meeting, anticlimactical as it was. Got our big settlement checks and a pamphlet from Workone (Indiana unemployment). Then we got told, gather your stuff and leave as soon as possible. I don't know if it was as much the bum's rush as it was, "This is what you're supposed to do. Do what you need to."
My first move was to my supervisor. I sat real close and said, "I wouldn't say this to just any supervisor (My attempt at keeping it light)... You're the best supervisor I think I've had..."
"Same here, Chris, " she replied. "I'll miss you."
"Me too."
The rest of the time morphed into handshakes, then hugs, then tears. Lots of tears. One girl I'd banged heads with as much as anyone in the place cried on my shoulder.
Fort Wayne will come in to to a final inventory, I guess. And to ship what's left out. Including two sections of cutting table and the inside of a file cabinet drawer which now have "BOOOGAR!" written on them in marker.
And what is left now is a voice that keeps crying out, "It shouldn't have died like this! It shouldn't have died like this!" to nobody listening...
:(
ReplyDeleteAnn Voskamp wrote something like, "When you see all the endings coming, start looking for all the beginnings. I hope some bright beginnings come out of this loss.
ReplyDelete:(
ReplyDeleteI must say though, that the fact you are getting a settlement AND they are allowing unemployment is reassuring that you will be okay... most companies now a days are not allowing both.
Great poem.
:(
ReplyDeleteThankfully, the end of June doesn't last forever.