Canceling the Void

It doesn’t register at first
But by the time I realize something’s wrong,
It’s too late to go back and change it.
“I’m sorry,” I tell the customer, “I’m afraid we’re going to have to start
all over from the beginning.”
And I press the button.
“Error,” says the computer. “Your Void has been canceled.”
Something must be wrong. Again; I press it.
“Error,” it repeats. “Your Void has been canceled.”
“But how is that a thing?” I demand, out loud.
How can the Void
Be canceled?

Nature abhors a vacuum, of course.
That’s the reason vacuums work at all.
“There can’t be nothing there,” says nature.
“If there’s nothign to put there, we’ll make something up.”
And so there are twitterings and ditherings in the very Void.
But how can there not be nothing?
If you can’t have nothing, where can you even start?
How dare we cancel the Void?

What were you doing all last year? the man from Manpower asked me.
“I was in Brussels,” I said, “living with my parents,
Taking a year off. Writing.”
“And what did you accomplish?”
“I did a lot of writing.”
“But what did you accomplish?”
The working world abhors a vacuum.
This is how I know I must cancel the void.

Standing here out in front of my register
Feels more demeaning than standing behind it.
“Greet customers,” they tell me.
Commerce abhors a vacuum!
So I beckon them even before they’re ready.
I am a prostitute
Standing at the mouth of her alleyway,
Beckoning, “Are you reeeeaaady?”
And when I’ve caught a mark or john
Willing to buy a screw,
I take him back where we can do our business,
Where he can cancel my void,
Filling up my drawers with cash,
Until I finally hand him a note that begs
“Enter me
For a chance to win a five thousand dollar gift card!”

Why am I even here?
I, with my degrees, I with my ambitions.
How did I even get to this place,
Spending four to eight hours a day
Smiling at strangers, to bow and to scrape
For barely enough money to cancel the debt
From my studies, let alone move out of my home.
Let alone invest in my future.
And for what?
This job means less than nothing to me.
Why did I even come here?
I needed a job and this was better than nothing.
I’m just canceling the Void.
But how I so adore a vacuum.

About Polypsyches


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