Overtime Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

The anglepoise lamp
like a sunflower radiating
sunlight suddenly went dark

he sat there in the blackness
of his own indecision

listened to footsteps fade
the building’s bones creak
as wastes of office workers
were carried down its alimentary canal

through the large window
other buildings extinguished themselves
heartbeat by heartbeat
amid stale smells of ashtrays
of greyish residues and sticky tars
from heedless puffs of routine
drawn deep into the lungs

he was still doodling
when the darkness came
doodling till the pencil point broke off
in eager lifeless confusions
of unanswered correspondence
the messiness of misfilings
the airless window
the trepidation of finally leaving