Thursday, November 28, 2013

Ode to the Graveyard Shi(f)t (by Lon Jambalos)

I'm singing goodbye to the 10 Million Fireflies
The midnight bus chase and 
The streets of sleeping vendors

Drowsy zombies drinking San Mig Light at 5 AM on the steps of 7/11
With the cool breeze and the puff of cigarette
We sighed our dreams to the dawning sky
For money, for freedom, for love and for some normalcy in our lives

Goodbye to the solitary parades along Ayala on business holidays
I owned the empty stretch
With my heels going click...clock...
Click...clock... and nobody hears it.

This is for the Sleepy Heads.
The Day Sleepers.
Graveyard Fireflies toiling in the night

Can't stay awake in their stations
Can't fall asleep on their beds.

Lulled by the moon...
Stirred by the sun!

Coffee pulsing in their veins.

Shock absorbers.
Scapegoats.
Shopaholics.

Here's a Toast to the nights you brace
With courage and a faked twang
You try to do the impossible
Of understanding...
Those who doesn't want to be understood.


Note about the poem:
This is something I wrote on October 1, 2010 when I finally got a day job after working night shift for years in the Call Center. The song Fireflies was playing the background. And I remember how in one poem, I used the term Graveyard Fireflies to refer to Call Center Agents (graveyard for 'graveyard shift' as well as a metaphor for the kind of work we do).

©2010 Ma. Leonor Jambalos. All rights reserved to this poem.

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