Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

Conference Notes

Spots amidst the stripes

We gather for a collection
of meetings (which we despise)
and, here we come, to devise
a way away from work to join
as few as we can, just to spend

a night with strangers in a three star
joint, where people we like the least are
making strange small talk at the bar;
a pitiful grey collection
in ‘smart casual’ – a collective reflection

on each other’s professional cues
and progress (perhaps one more
than another) and so there are sections
for peacocking and others to spot
a longer feather or brighter hue,

which will be duly noted when we jot
down notes on what to do better,
what the keynote speaker said,
how he looked in that sweater,
and how we’d like to be dead.

©️Anna Murzyn November 2022