A Gentle Reminder

The last time I dragged myself out of bed

And crawled to office, was today.

A world that I dread to step into, almost every day

A montage of heads hung deep into their mobile phones or held high towards their computer screens

But never meeting the eyes 

Maybe, in an attempt to overlook the sadness we all behold...

I wonder how tedious it is to escape this routine...

I guess, VERY!

Today, like every other day,

Faking a smile on my way to every single person I see

And wearing a t-shirt saying - I am surrounded by idiots,

I finally reach my desk and get to work.

With a strong echo of keystrokes growing by the second,

Enough to suppress your conscience,

I pull out my journal and spill down my frustration

Of the glass covered indoors, having your every move under surveillance,

Grotesquely veiled under the signboard- 

Smile, we're watching you...

At 1 pm sharp, as I head off to lunch break exactly 45 minutes long,

With countless other people, more hurled than hungry, 

Ignoring them all,

I fix my eyes on the watch hanging on the wall and count the hours left to suffer.

Depressed, finding more movement in the hands of the clock,

Concurrently tortoising towards another hour of the day,

Only to discover that there's more time left to kill for the weekend.

A lifetime of suffering and 48 hours of freedom,

Quite a fair trade I must say...

Traveling between 9 to 6 every day, back and forth,

And dreams not making it to that clock

With monotony scarred all over the journal

And a million more words left to bleed out...

Maybe it's a sign, a gentle reminder

To pause my timer for a while,

Until pain meets pen

And the pen meets satisfaction...

Only to resume in the routine 

Running along this love triangle,

As opposed to the tried and tested,

Safe and lethal

Age-old vicious circle!