I Did My Time On The Corporate Line

Dedicated to anyone staring out the office window, wondering what life could be like.

This is a poem inspired by leaving what some still call my ‘proper job’, just over two years ago. It's dedicated to all the workers staring out of their (home) office window, wondering what life could be like.

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Doing Time

I did my time on the corporate line,
getting along just fine with the drones
clinging to slippery poles of succession,
too easily impressed by lines
they never dared stray from,
mediocre words of false impression.

But realignments on ever-shifting sands;
projects killed with hubris and temerity;
heroic fire-fighting after sunset;
all replaced daytime sincerity,
in being the better bet,
for pleasing seniority.

Now through my retrospectacles,
I can see my life’s real test
was replacing chief-whatever tinted glasses,
urging seductive striving for dollars and shares,
with the humbler, harder business
of sharing my life with those who care.

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