Hanson Windows On 9-11-01 Poem by Joe Rosochacki

I was a telemarketer for a company that featured window replacement and more.
In September of 2001, on Groesbeck Highway on the east, was the store.
I, together with a dozen people, was hawking the windows and siding by Hanson.
It was a typical mundane Tuesday but then---
Something terrible was about to unfurl and was about to happen.
There was blaring music by Eminem,
The two ‘pit bosses’ were keeping eye on the calls,
I hated the background rap, I hate it now and I hated it then.
For the ‘pit bosses’ it was a certain kind of ‘cool’.
The people kept on complaining how we did not know what happening,
-there wasn’t any radio or TV within the four walls.
The people were telling about what was going on.
The company had us call and telemarket some more.
The computer dialed the numbers; we had a ‘shpiel’ to give the caller, what a bore.
The company would not allow us to readily get information
--that would tell us what was the situation.
Finally, the company was looking a looking like a fool.
I said to one of the ‘pit bosses’ that we need to abandon our operations for today.
He mulled it over and he said “Keep calling until I hear further from Brian Elias”.
The first tower had been struck;
-we continued calling people to have replacement windows.
After which, the second tower had been hit,
I asked how long do we call and make ourselves look like asses?
Now I could recognize the audacity of the USA being attacked,
Like my parents did when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
The President of Hanson Windows, Brian Elias, did finally realize,
-that people were extremely irritated by his company calling them when the US was hit.
The greed has bowed to wise eyes.
A day later, all the salespeople where out in force, with little Stars and Stripes on the cars.
A company, that had refused to suspend their telemarketing calls when towers were hit,
Now became ultra-patriotic, it seemed fit.
Now eight years later I find myself thinking where I was on this day.
Somehow that day changed the entire future; Life was altered in radically different way.
I know the location of Hanson Windows has changed to a different place.
But I know, and they know too,
--about their initial reaction to the jets that flew like bombs.
Thousands of deaths later and heroic measures that were taken,
That seems a far cry from telemarketing operations that morn.
The hypocrisy of business from September 11th to the 12th,
Will be forever felt.

9-11-09