Dumbsizing

Shrunk to shrimp size

in their cubicle correct clothes

they were filed under

“O” for Obsolete

            “O” for Omission

            “O” for Out

One

One was left at normal size

to do all the work that was left behind.

Her fingers moving faster on the computer

keyboard than dancing cowboys

about to pee in their pants.

All the work cried for her attention

like a baby in a basket left on its own.

She was crying too.

Everyday

she weighed, measured, and looked at herself

in the mirror to see if she was being

down-sized.

Did her shoes feel loose?

Were her earrings getting too big for her ears?

Did she need two hands to lift her hairbrush?

All around her

chairs, desks, and file cabinets were disappearing

 as quick as smoke in a burp of wind.

She refused to use the elevator.

So many went in

So many never came out

Her bosses

Mr. “B” and Mr. “C”

who themselves were having  fits of the sweats

about their boss the Big “A” giving them the shrinks

gave her a bottle of aspirin for health insurance

and a lottery ticket for a retirement plan.

The copy machines were replaced

by pencils and notepads.

The drinking fountain was closed

on odd number days and “Out of Order”

on even ones.

The new company motto

adorned the shrinking walls

“We Used to Make Something.”

Bang went her elbows

boom went her knees

in her shrinking cubicle

as she tried to move

to use her brand new payphone.

At days end

she stepped gingerly

when she left the office to avoid

the little ones  that scurried

across the parking lot

She used to borrow pencils from them

drink coffee with them

be friends with them

before they were reduced to the

size of Lincoln pennies

and sent rolling out the door.