Nobody I Knew Will Ever Read This

because it’s made of poetry;
because it has no proper rhymes,
because the lines don’t travel all the way
to the far side of the page.
Because the things it has to say
might be too embarrassing,
too personal. Because it is free
from numbered clauses, short on bullet points;
of pie-charts, moving averages,
distressingly bereft. Because it’s left
aligned, not justified, and not designed
to be digested down to Powerpoint slides
for senior execs who don’t have time
or much of an attention span. Corporate Man
has no respect for poetry. It’s too
right-brain, and quite unlike
the careful analytical reports I used to write.
Come to think of it, nobody I knew
ever read those either.

There don’t seem to be a lot of poems about The Modern Workplace but I have had a go at the subject and I have heard one or two poems in the genre by younger poets.  I’ve written a few.  Here’s one slight piece which is based on a True Story.

Groupthink

The team is in the bar with a flipchart
drinking margaritas at five o’clock
devising a new Vision for our Brand.

It should be the best product on the market
the most recognised name in its sector
the best seller, with the major Share of Mind.

We contemplate the bullet points we’ve listed,
agree that they distil the very essence
of the factors critical for our success.

Then one of us takes up the magic marker
and scribbles on a fresh page of paper
“Team Vision” inscribing, in red, below:

EVERYBODY
SHOULD BE
MORE LIKE
US.