Wintry Afternoons In Office (Written On 20-01-2000) Poem by Subhojit Kar

Typed office memos:
rows of marching ants on lifeless saucers.

Tang of lemon tea scalding tongue
and the pedestal fan a middle-aged housewife,
standing still, glancing sideways, face averted.

Ting-tong, ting-ting, tong-tong- -
the telephone bleats,
a stationary sheep to the e-mail master's whims

Chomping of fingers on keyboards and
paperweights: miniature ocean floors in ice-cold globes

Voices: chatty, urgent, conspiratorial.
Wisps of cigarette smoke
clouding vision, judgement.
Thoughts take off, flutter about as buzzing flies,
then drop dead
on the unblinking staring white page.

No lines for you or me here
Or for anybody, anywhere....