Hold

The dialtone is replaced by music
immediately striking me as light and fun
and that is replace every now and then
by a friendly voice telling me more about the person I am calling

Its a groovy riff
and I'm in Florida, and then they hit me with "the era of unpredictable energy prices"

I close my eyes and see palms blown by the wind
the blue sky
I smell the ocean
feel of the sand beneath my feet
and the waves thundering on the horizon

"Customer satisifaction is our number one priority"
And the music resumes, the guitarist letting his fingers fly in a riff
accompanied now by flute and piano and electric synthesizer - muzak redux
"Our fixed price offer protects you against rate increases"

And I'm still on the line while they
are looking forward to speaking with me

Please hold
One of our customer service representatives will be with you momentarily

Customer satisfaction is their number one priority
And so I'm holding for a customer care specialist

But they're still busy
If I want to enroll online they ask me to please visit them on the web

And the message repeats
The music gets more moderate, the tempo sounding like elevator tunes
The interruptions to the music seem to come at specific times
telling me that someone will be with me momentarily

My computer's desktop is an image
of blue sky and a green field
mountains in the background and icons climbing the left side of my screen
Florida
recedes from my mind
and I am thrown into an era of unpredictable energy prices

But someone is looking forward to speaking with me
and I am still feeling alone

They seem to be into interrupting themselves
Music plays now only a few seconds before it is cut into
again and again

Isn't it fun that
Their customer care specialists are busy serving other customers
Florida
recedes from my mind
I can no longer feel the sand beneath my toes
or hear the waves pound against the shore
I always thought I would die young

I used to say
live and let live

Hi. My name is Cindy
How can I help you?

She smiles (you can hear a smile)
and in my mind I'm riding a tank in the general's rank
against a blood red Florida sky

Pleased to meet you
hope you guess my name