retreat (6)

dragging walking
the publisher on
my team and he
laughs at most
of my jokes but
not some of them
in the ha-ha variety.

walking with dragging
feet taking a drag off
my cigarette the older
productions person
lingers behind writing
down pictures as words
for 'CHANGE' all around
us.

dragging, walking, and
the director of advertising
(the magician of revenue)
stays with the publisher
a few tens of feet ahead

in the lead the business
office leader - the controller
the financier - 'slippery
rock' calling out, getting
into it.

a merry brand prancing
through the woods, the
pranksters we're not yet
maybe the pranksters not
so merry of industry and
news. the media. news.

uncouth second class
status. i don't live on
a golff course the ones
who have left the organ-
ization now know i'm a
poet and express it in
different ways, but a
few of them now know
and time slows and the
day goes on and on.

a scene:
work ethics and
smoke breaks. i
thought they were
ragging on me personally
but as a salaried employee
who had put so many hours
in i spoke up and said, \"whatever...\"
but spelled it out so they would
understand it being older (and
maybe wiser) than myself. and
then they said no, no it's not
you it's the hourly employees
and then it ended there - some-
what and i wondered
what it was all really about
and i said non-smokers
waste time too and the
union people and the
non-union people
have different
rules and there
was talk of everyone's
'number 2' and i had no
'number 2' and yet wasn't
a number one for anything
really.

i shouted out about my lack of
office too, during the smoking
question/debate of how to
crack down or if we needed
to crack down. i'm gonna get
fired now, i said, and they
laughed at my outlandishness
and the publisher said you still
have a chance to be moved. or
something like that don't \"quote\"
me on it.

another moment:
at dinner - very ordinary
restuarant with very ordinary
\"restaurant frozen dinners\" pre-
packaged and heated up and he
or she was talking about the
second most paranoid person
they'd met. i wondered if i was
the first on that list. i kept my
mouth shut, though. i do see
inequalities and it doesn't seem
to bother anyone except me so
maybe it shouldn't bother me.

exit stage left.

(to be continued?)