A Hold-up
I wrote this poem
while on hold for a bureaucrat
with a Lynyrd Skynyrd instrumental
playing in the background
A Simple Man irony
for today’s red tape reality
of phone menu roulette
I wrote this poem knowing that
with one wrong button press
my connection could be cut
and the ‘no more than 20 minutes wait time’
would be added to my sentence
‘Please hold’ is a hold-up
a robbery of time
holding me hostage
with no sign of release
with a recording that repeats
with a recording that repeats
‘Please stay on the line’
‘Your call is important’
‘All calls will be answered
in the order they’re received’
________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United
November 26th, 2023 4:46 pm
I can relate. It IS “doing time”, an apt description of organizations in modern life … trying to connect with a real human voice. But how did I not know of Lynyrd Skynyrd until now? Yes, great irony in the Simple Man song.
November 26th, 2023 8:08 pm
Fun to read, Colleen. Hard to believe you didn’t know Lynyrd until now!! I call your recording plays as robots. I hate dealing with robots.
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November 26th, 2023 8:43 pm
The whole phone based service system needs to be replaced by a smarter, more responsive IT system… which is slowly happening in some areas. We’ve all been there at the end of those inane repetitions…feel this!
November 27th, 2023 9:59 am
I am appalled to know that red tape bugs other countries too. I thought it was only us.
November 27th, 2023 12:00 pm
Perfectly encapsulates the frustration of today’s so-called customer service. “Your call is important to us…” LIARS!!
If it were they’d answer their phones without making you press this and that until you get lost in dead space. They’d hire people instead of hooking up more robots.
November 27th, 2023 5:49 pm
I dread having to make calls where I know it’s just me and the muzack until a human (hopefully!) answers.
November 30th, 2023 11:47 pm
I agree with Yvone. The frustration–mixed with resignation (because what else can we do?)–is alive in every line. They reflect society’s horrors so well. We see them, we hear them, we know they are there, but much too often we are kept layers and layers away from action.
December 1st, 2023 9:08 pm
I love your wait time as a sentence imposed.