|
CO-WORKER
They hadn’t invented the word back then,
when we shared an office and back-to-back desks,
and you pretended you liked me and didn’t mind
the smell of my tobacco smoke or the tap-tap
of my pipe that signalled another thought-filled break
and an interruption to the pencil filling of my coding pad.
You asked me for my birthday after I moved on,
saying that I’d be added to your mailing list.
I still had the power of rapid thought back then
and I told you July 4th, not wanting to have the
privacy of my real natal days invaded by your
endless, reliably mechanical interruptions.
So now, before July has registered properly on
my year-turning consciousness, the postman
brings a card and, later in the day, my peace
is broken by the telephone as you call for old times sake
and, still polite (though not for many years more)
I remember who you were, how little you’ve changed, and how
after all these years you are, still, an irritating little bore.
–John Bailey, May 2009
Cilfrew, Glamorganshire
|
