The Boredom Song

And now for some whimsy:

Yet another endless day
Surely there's a better way
Of watching my life slip away
Than sitting here like this.
Dull and constant office chatter,
Noisy keyboards' plastic clatter
Churning words that just don't matter:
Can't stay awake much longer.
Electic light - no glimpse outside -
Damn open-plan, no place to hide!
"A vibrant workplace?" Someone lied!
Why won't this day ever end?
The clock looks stuck, or running slow.
Oh, what? It's not? There's hours to go?
Another half a day of woe?
Why did I agree to this?
The same old phone calls, tiresome mail.
Plans for something better fail,
Trapped hopelesly in boredom's tale,
Wishing I was far from here.
No-one to message. Offline or away,
Those friends who'd get me through the day.
Who'll make me laugh, keep boredom at bay?
Alone in open-plan hell...
Distractions sought to pass the time
Playing with doggerel, playing with rhyme.
Neither subtle nor sublime,
Anything to stay awake!
The verse is done, and time has passed
It's surely time to go, at last?
But what? Time, like me, still seems stuck fast;
Caught in the office doldrums.

Storm-tossed

Alone under the sky, suspended in an instant
On the peak of a wave where hope seems possible.
Distant shores in sight from here,
Far lights glimmering like promises.
The instant ends, the view disappears.

Depths rush up as the heights fall away.
Plunging through cold shadowed valleys,
Waves rise high, force given form,
Looming cliffs that threaten to crush,
Life tossed and spun like flotsam.

Easier to give up. Run before the storm,
Driven into strange seas to wander, lost.
Or seek the eye - deceptive refuge -
Calm, but empty; safe, yet solitary.
Easier, but not an answer.

Turn instead, meet the storm head-on.
Scale the waves and steer for the sky,
Face tides and squalls that break and blind,
Fight again for that glimpse of harbour,
Where warmth, life, and possibilities wait in store.

Poetry Challenge #1 - mangle your friends with haiku.

A friend was issued with three poetry challenges. On completing them, she suggested that others also attempt them. It wasn't directed specifically at me but, regardless, I lacked the sense to say "No."

"Construct a poem in the form of a Haiku. Write one haiku each describing three or four of your friends. Concentrate on giving the impression or feeling of the person, rather than simply a visual description."

Quick laugh, ready smile.
Fire inside glimpsed in flashes;
Hidden strength within.

Keen-edged thoughts searching.
Knowledge sought in far places;
Absent, not distant.

Skilled master of code.
Carried far on cryptic strings
Back to family.

An insular life.
Common ground erodes with time,
Friendships wash away.