At work each day

I arrive at work each day,

parking my car each day,

thinking my way through

what it is I have to do,

when I arrive at work each day.

I turn the computer on each day,

opening the new email each day,

auto-deleting the spam

erasing flim-flam,

when I turn the computer on each day.

And then it’s crisis, issue, attack,

forward this, respond to that,

attend meetings that multiply

like rabbits, solve a problem,

solve a colleague’s problem,

grit my teeth with the colleague

who is the problem, dissuade

second-guessers, write, attend

another meeting, write more,

tweet three trade press links and

respond to follow requests, exchange

DMs with a reporter, sit

in a presentation, scarf down lunch

while posting to Facebook, take

two phone calls and let three go

to voice-mail (delaying the inevitable),

write more, post to the corporate blog,

discuss two issues with two people, get

a surprise visit from an old colleague,

write and draft plans and plan out

tomorrow and it’s 5 p.m.

I turn the computer off each day,

I walk to the parking lot each day,

I think how much of tomorrow

did today I borrow,

And I drive away from work each day.

This poem is submitted for the Poetics prompt of “Play It Again, Sam: Repetititon in Poetry” at dVerse Poets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site.

Photograph: Architectural Background by Vera Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.