Haiku in the Workplace: The Office Flirt
I anticipated that we might see two distinctly different approaches to this topic. On the one hand, there would be the flirters, evincing a brazen confidence in their animality, as condensed in this week’s third choice winner:
Coffee by the desk An evening drink or two Coffee in the morning [David Pilling]
On the other hand would be the observers, who found the actions of the flirters to be, well, brazen and confident, as opposed, perhaps, to their own actions. They may approve or disapprove, but they would be doing so mostly on the sidelines. It is an observer who can note the following, this week’s second choice:
mistletoe-curling charm he breathes she thinks — mouthwash [Andy Coleman]
But I should have thought further. It is a combination of these personae that resides in most of us. We would be that casual flirt, and at the same time that cautious swain. Physical and sensitive. Bold and meditative. George Clooney and Colin Firth. If only, as in this week’s top winner, in our dreams . . . :
immobilised . . . frozen in a text trance of e-yearning [David Dayson]
New Poems
office stud the way he mispronounces fax — Terri L. French * circling around me a fly — Ernesto Santiago * what she could have said went right through me all night could have been the flu – Ron Scully * his right hand to back to back to business as usual — Betty Shropshire * office cat boldly pads carpet casting glances tail curled in a hook — Kevin Trammel * office babe her blouse getting lower as she rises — Marion Clarke * office whispers her underwriting showing again — Peggy Bilbro * the office flirt in the elevator she's all business — Michael Henry Lee * wrapping me around her little finger a paperclip — Mark Gilbert * Holiday Party the boss steers his wife away from the office flirt — Marilyn Appl Walker * year-end party everyone becomes the office flirt — Christina Sng * carpool gossip on the floor mats yesterday's snow — Elliot Nicely (bottle rockets 21) * office party — I'm watching wedding dresses the day after — Marta Chocilowska * sparks fly a circuit-breaker at the android plant — Marietta McGregor * drawing close . . . a new trainee smiles at me like Mona Lisa — Nikolay Grankin * she gets a rise out of her boss the office flirt — Johnny Baranski * office party she moves from plate to plate — Mohammad Azim Khan * punch-drunk . . . he picks tinsel off my hair — Samantha Sirimanne Hyde * eyes twinkle to boost better collaboration under mistle toe — Csilla Toldy * slips out in his groping eyes my woolen scarf — Srinivasa Rao Sambangi * exchanging glances during the coffee break . . . steam rises from my cup — Olivier Schopfer * xmas sweater contest — her v-neck plunges below see level — Jennifer Hambrick * elf on the shelf the office flirt returns to her cube — Tom Sacramona * office flirt invisible mistletoe in their pocket year-round — Lori Zajkowski * Christmas School Party — kissing under mistletoe Maths and History — Maria Laura Valente * office party my crush and I take off our masks — Debbi Antebi * the shape of the office flirt’s blush secret santa — Brendon Kent * stolen glances — flushing red cheeks but not with cold — Anna Maria Domburg-Sancristoforo *
Next Week’s Theme: Promotions and Bonuses
Send your poem using “workplace haiku” as the subject by Sunday midnight to our Contact Form. Good luck!
From October 2014 through April 2016 Haiku Foundation president Jim Kacian offered a column on haiku for the London Financial Times centered on the theme of work. Each week we share these columns with the haiku community at large, along with an invitation to join in the fun. Submit a poem by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, from the classical Japanese tradition, or contemporary practice, or perhaps one of your own, which you might even write for the occasion. The best of these will be appended to the column. First published 27 November 2014.
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annual bonus —
President’s handshake at the end
of the year
assistant super’s bonus
your own work and
all of the manager’s
promoted
for her brilliant business mind
bottle blond