we were promised a permanent escalation of unremembered suffering
our manager’s husband
killed a family in a drunk driving incident
he wrote a book about it
that she handed out
to make us better employees
in its pages
he says that
bones shattering under rubber
and windshields full of blood
aren’t all that different than managing someone
buying something
selling something
we didn’t ask questions
and didn’t turn the pages
our lips contained no blood
our hands contained no bone