Rightsizing, by Will Cordeiro

Art by Toàn Văn

Rightsizing

Instead of donuts,

donut holes—

then DO NOT

ENTER the office

kitchen. Shuttered

rooms repurposed,

splintered, gutted.

The vacuums hum.

Each lifer packing

boxes up; in back,

indecipherable yet

decisive faces sailing in

in tailored jackets—

the latest hivemind

of upstart consultants

sent from start-ups

promising results.

Findings indicate

a fleet of interns

and AI best meets

corporate’s need

for grinds. Reports

evaluate our value-

added, padded out

with charts and data.

A deck indifferent to

what we sold: the soul

of this old company

dumped down river.

High-five each other

just like champs and

duck the sneers of all

us chumps; up and up,

they take the elevator,

anticipating the delivery

of news: another round

of suckers that they’ll

sack—but at the top,

a boardroom, boarded

up, is a-tizzy with bots.

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Will Cordeiro has work published in 32 Poems, AGNI, Bennington Review, Pleiades, and The Threepenny Review. Will is the author of Trap Street (Able Muse, 2021) and Whispering Gallery (DUMBO Press, 2024) as well as coauthor of Experimental Writing: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2024) and, forthcoming, The New Foundations of Creative Writing (Bloomsbury, 2027). Will coedits Eggtooth Editions and lives in Guadalajara, Mexico.