Please Fire Me by Deborah Garrison

Poem critique One of many poems in existence is “Please Fire me” by Deborah Garrison. It was mean to be written in a way that can be seen similarly to the way people gossip. She does succeed in the way that she wrote sues word that people used in their normal vocabulary and the general tone of a someone who is simply frustrated with the world she lives in can be understood by anyone in this day and age. The major theme in the poem is male chauvinism in the work place. The people in charge of the workplace in this particular poem are men and the women are definite underlings in comparison to them. The men are described as the alpha dogs while the women are “silly little hens”. The men described in the poem are not seen at all in a good like one is described seducing female workers “Here comes another alpha male--a man's man, a dealmaker, holds tanks of liquor, charms them pants less at lunch:” Even with all the negative light it is clear that in this workplace the men have the power and the women have to comply and agree to what the men say unless they wish for unemployment. The speaker in this poem tells the poem in a tone of someone who has had it with the alpha male dominance in her work place and wants badly to get out of there. It can be best summed up with “Well I think I'm through with the working world, through with warming eggs and being Zenlike in my detachment from all things Ego.” The poem can be seen by some as a allegory to some women’s experience in the workplace in the past few years when they were harassed by their male coworkers. The poem is in a way a complaint of a workplace where in which a women in subjected to many things that she must take in stride and smile at the injustices. The speaker hates it but knows that going someplace else won’t guarantee shell never have to face this treatment again. This piece is a poem that can be understood by any women who had unpleasant experiences in the office and wanted to get away from it and yet still be an insightful poem for anyone.