Annette Kirby
Work and Progress
Then there was silence, just the clack, clack, clack
of steel keys whacked through layers of papers
touch-typed blind at eighty words per minute.
Upright girls in twin-sets and pearls and perfect
posture forged faultless text from shorthand shapes.
Time was of the essence and mistakes made waste.
Then no-one spoke, only in whispers or
mouthed “How are you?” behind a pinstriped back.
No food consumed at office desk, or cans,
just tea. An eyebrow raised at orange zest
suggested the place was the firm’s canteen
or luncheon vouchers at The Golden Egg.
Now the tools we use make a soft click, click
and workers slouch with arms outstretched to mouse.
Spellcheck alerts and cut and paste saves strokes
and time for chat and jokes in break-out place.
Bottles jostle for space on mess-strewn desks
but no-one bats an eye or queries the
litter or the stale micro-waved smell of
yesterday’s soup waiting to be replaced.
Now meetings discuss teamwork and targets
or new ways to appraise our performance.
Meantime we Google and Twitter away
or decide what to wear on dress-down day.
Page(s) 48
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The