Please and Thank You

"We regret to inform you."

"Your case has been reviewed."

"We appreciate this may be difficult

and we thank you for your time."

Two pages, headed paper,

a signature that's printed on,

and a family with eleven days

to be somewhere else entirely.

Nobody in that building shouted.

Nobody in that building lied —

Please and thank you! (please and thank you!)

Ruin arrives. (ruin arrives!)

Nobody's cruel here, nobody's careless,

nobody's answerable either.

Please and thank you! (please and thank you!)

Manners make a lovely wall

and you can't fight a wall that smiles.

Noted! (noted!)

Valued! (valued!)

Nothing! (nothing!)

And the woman on the phone is kind.

She has no power whatsoever.

She's the softest possible surface

for a hardness with no address.

So the anger lands on her

and the decision lands on you

and the ones who set the policy

have never met a single one of us.

Put a gentle voice out front of it.

Nobody swings at a gentle voice —

Please and thank you! (please and thank you!)

Nothing moves. (nothing moves!)

A hundred decent people

running one indecent thing.

Please and thank you! (please and thank you!)

Courtesy without a consequence

is just a slower kind of no.

And I have said "I hear you"

in a voice that meant "we're finished."

Warm face. Locked door.

I learned it here. We all learned it here.

Please and thank you! (please and thank you!)

Keep the manners. I like manners.

Just attach them to a name.

Please and thank you! (please and thank you!)

Somebody decided this.

Somebody can be asked.

A system is a group of people

who agreed to say it wasn't them.