Dan Steven

Lyrics

Telemarketer

I dreamt last night I saw Captain Jean-Luc Picard
of the Starship Enterprise kill the Android first-mate, Data.
I don’t remember if I felt surprised
or just horrified.

I woke up and went to work at the office, nine to five.
I am a telemarketer.
We all gotta do what we gotta do
if we want to survive.

Emotionless computer screen
stares at me all day long, trying to suck me in.
The supervisor, suit-and-tie guy named Barry’s
got a ten-year-old tattoo on the skin of his shoulder
that I’m sure he tried to hide -
some kind of Navy-veteran-turned-salesman,
supposed to sign people up
to long distance programs.

I try not to swear back
when they give me the finger through the telephone.
I get sworn at by hundreds of people a day,
but hey,
I guess it beats being alone.

And I drove through San Francisco in the summer
on the way down from BC;
And made twenty bucks an hour in the subway,
singing in the heat.
I saw people by the thousands,
like shepherds without sheep,
like shepherds, trying to (herd) hurt each other,
and I’m sure not a single one of them
heard me

I dreamt last night I saw Captain Jean-Luc Picard
of the Starship Enterprise kill the Android first-mate, Data;
I don’t remember if I felt surprised or just horrified
Woke up and went to work at the office, nine to five.
Sprint Canada telemarketer.
We all gotta do what we gotta do
if we want to survive, survive.

I get sworn at by hundreds of people a day.
I get sworn at; I try not to give them the finger
back to them on the telephone.
but hey, I guess it beats being alone.