You are here: Home > Poems > The Office

The Office

By Patrick Mackeown

Poem: The Office

Tags: poem, office, boredom

  • Title: The Office
  • Category: Poetry
  • Author: Patrick Mackeown
  • Posted: 21 May 2006

Feel free to share this free poem with your friends.

Download it in pdf format now.

The Office


The office is looking grey today

The air is oppressive and heavy

Locked inner doors signal who's away

I get my presentation ready


The management are huffed and puffed

All blown up with hiring and firing

Their procedures can all get stuffed

I find them rather tiring


The meeting is doom and gloom

Buzzwords are on display

For distraction I gaze around the room

But someone tall is in my way


Patrick are you hearing me?

someone says from way off far

I know I'm not where I ought to be

I'm thinking about my car


Now you speak the person informs

I zoom to matters in hand

It's time for me to get to my feet

But I can hardly stand


Er, I say, searching for the profound

Did they action it?

Did who carry out what? I expound

Thinking the questioner is a tit

Headcount, face-to-face, in the round


That went well someone remarks

You nearly got yourself fired

I look at a zillion grey clerks

I'm feeling somewhat mired


I stumble past the water stand

I realise I'm wobbling and weaving

A colleague stops me with a hand

She asks: Having trouble breathing?


My desk is cleared I say as a reply

I've had enough of clerking

The woman looks me in the eye

How will you survive without working?


That's a challenge I admit

I'm thinking of taking up writing

Don't you need to consider it?

No, I'm sick of pointless fighting

Patrick Mackeown

About the author

Patrick Mackeown is the author of the highly recommended thriller novel The Expendability Doctrine. He was recently interviewed about his work by The Leicester Review of Books.