Skip to main content
table of contents
Jennifer Blackledge
Remote Layoffs
When little moons bloomed
next to names
in the team chat
we knew
then we burrowed
into the directory and
one by one blindly
felt our way through
the company tree.
Signal sent, wait for response,
either I’m OK or
the automatic boomerang message
that lodges in your chest:
no such account exists.
In bedrooms and basements,
we pinged people and
rechecked our electronic keys.
Does this portal open?
Still welcome here?
Then back to names:
Are you ok? You there?
Furtive and urgent,
we took stock,
like a meerkat chirrups
Danger, man down to
what’s left of the colony.