Another Day At The Office Poem by Edmund Calleja

'Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list
of the richest people in America.
If I'm not there, I go to work.' Robert Orben

When you open up your eyes
you stretch yourself and yawn,
as morning light envelops
the starry night at dawn.

You're full of expectations
so eager to wake up,
while standing by the mirror
applying your make-up.

You wear a jacket and a skirt
as you idly brush your hair,
eyeing sadly all the time
a sexy dress you’d rather wear.

You long to leave the margins
of this decadent society,
to climb the ladder of success
while retaining your sobriety.

You strive to keep appearances
while relating to your life,
in the prison of your destiny
where joy and pain are rife.

It’s like living in denial
of your capacity to endure,
those ifs and buts of your career
a rosy future won’t secure.

And all the magic is undone
by the wand of stark reality,
where all that matters in the office
is acceptance and formality.

To have faith in your inner power
amid joy and trepidation,
where the manual of good behaviour
is your only alienation.

Emotions cannot be mastered
by any wisdom you may gain,
it’s only a question of knowing
what your sentiments may attain.

Your lack of motivation
is spreading by contagion,
seeking emotional freedom
on every stark occasion.

Visions of advancement are
for the really chosen few,
the blue eyed boys and girls
but certainly never you.

The clichés you’re forced to utter
and in which you don’t believe,
but that’s really what it takes
to impress and to achieve.

It’s like letting life decide for you
where dreams are often cast in clouds,
where your voice is just a whimper
too easily lost in crowds.

Waiting for doors to open
to which you’ve lost the plot,
recanting political beliefs
unless you want to rot.

You crave for recognition
and long for admiration,
a time to lure, a time to test
the art of your flirtation.

To grow complacent day by day
letting go of non-essentials,
struggling to come to placid terms
with your lousy bad credentials.

Another day spent at the office
where you grow older and you age,
vowing that come next day
you'll turn and start a newer page.