​POETRY  -  
          With a Theme of Work

Michael answers the phone with a Texas drawl    -   
                                                            photo by Weebly.com                                                                   

Customer Service
by Karen Marker

​​​Michael answers the phone with a Texas drawl.
We are ordering blinds from Home Depot,
he works out of Dallas in Customer Service. 
It’s only the second time we’ve talked
but it feels like we’re friends. It’s more
than the weather, how it’s heating up 
but he’s hanging in. I want to know about his family,
how’s his health, has he had covid? We tell him
we want the accordion light blocking blinds
so it will be easier to see the screen while Andy’s
working with software for Sony, the PlayStation
he doesn’t play. Andy hasn’t yet gone back to his 
newly remodeled office South of Market where there’s
kombucha on tap and beer. I wonder if someone’s
listening in on our call. Do they have signs on the road
where Michael lives saying Jesus Saves So You Better
Get Ready, He’s Coming to Get You. Has he seen a semi
automatic weapon in a classroom, does he have
children, does he think a Civil War’s coming?
Michael slowly reads out our order number.
Did you get that all down, he asks and repeats it
so I can hear him again. I love his voice.
Is he black? I don’t talk to people from Texas. 
Has he lived there forever. I wish we could send you
some of our cool San Francisco air today, I say,
it’s never hot here in the summer. I don’t
ask if he’s heard that Home Depot execs support
The Great Replacement Theory. They’ve been giving
millions to those who believe the election was stolen.
He asks for our Credit card number.
Does Michael vote? Is there any chance
he could change things? How much does he earn?
Does he get a commission? The latest PlayStation’s
so successful people waited up all night,
endless buyers when your ‘re selling addiction. 
Does Michael ever think about quitting, like everyone else
does he wonder what he’s working for?

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​​Karen Marker submits poems to Rattle’s Poets Respond (to the news) and reads this poetry on the open mic with RattleCast. This past May she was a featured reader for Rivertown Poets out of Petaluma. Karen was honored to win first place prize for an essay, “Ruth in the Redwoods,” in the 2021 Keats Soul Making contest and that one of her poems was chosen to be in the Kent State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives. Karen is also grateful that she had the opportunity to work with the Young Writers Program through Santa Cruz’s Cornerstone Project, and to work with so many talented poets through PandaPoets and through OLLI including Kathleen McClung, Diane Frank and Jannie Dresser.

Other pieces in this Issue:  
Poetry:
Going Back to Work in Retrospect
Custodian of the Light in San Francisco
Passing My Swim Test in the Freedom Summer

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