It’s My Job

it’s cool outdoors for once
but the fan in my living room
is running anyway because
after days in a locked room
sweating the details with sad people
who are each sweating the future
as they try to figure out
how to get a job these days
now that their company’s closing

and after trying to help them
write resumes about things they’ve done on instinct
for years
trying to make them recognize what they’ve accomplished
with their perfect attendance and their good cheer
in the face of bad faith
trying to make them see
that they have done far more with their lives
than pack boxes and load trucks
trying to help them prepare to answer
jaded interviewers’ pointed questions
about their worth to another industry
trying to keep a smile on everyone’s face
(including my own as I earn my own pay
on the backs of their crises) and trying not to puke
as I offer multiple pretty versions of
“buck up little camper”
to people as scared as they can be
about being older and trying to get paid
and keep living in the new world
the way they did in the old world

after being asked by one of them
“so
if I do this right
I’ll get a job?”
and having every single one of them
go silent
as they looked to me for some
certainty

after a few days of that
i need this cool air
blowing on me
sitting
shirtless
tieless
and all alone in my room

I don’t know anything for sure
except that it feels better
here
than it did
there
where I couldn’t answer

“yes”