Michael Harmon, 2/8/2016

Current Occupation: Retired.
Former Occupation: Computer Programmer.
Contact Information: Michael Harmon holds a B.A. in English Literature from Long Island University and a B.S. in Computer Information Systems from Arizona State University.  Some of his work has appeared in North American Review, Riverrun, The Raintown Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Formalist, and Gravel Literary Journal.

 

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Office Politics

 

The glass was shattered.  What could be said?

The carpet was littered with glints of debris.

Sincerity vanished.  Apologies fled.

The subsequent ballots were all “Absentee”.

 

He studied their faces, now smaller than life,

and picked up the pieces, those he could find.

He dialed a number and spoke to his wife

and wrote in a note to his boss he resigned.

 

The glass was repaired, but was never the same.

The people he cared for at work, in the street

he greeted with smiles, had forgotten his name,

no longer a line in the phone-list elite.

 

He sought a new job and soon he was hired.

The place was as drab, and politics crass.

The moment he walked in until he retired

no coworker noticed the cracks in the glass.