mobile manager

mobile manager

busy signal strap-hanging on the 8.59 to somewhere

important clients assume the background is productive

but few of his calls last longer than a whistle stop

muscular veins on his programmed left hand boldly

pump and press his contacts he’s a cold call centre

ignored reprimanded abused for nothing more

than a formal ‘Hello, Robert speaking’ or a warm

‘Hi, it’s Steve here’ or a Hi, it’s Di returning your call

imagine the hours practicing at this level of subterfuge

I’m confusing wheels with deals pitch with sociability

I’m an all-stations voyage voyeur first day in training

sitting in his office focussed on nothing more sensual

than which side of his brain woke up first orchestrating

the patterned tie as vocal number to lift the instrumental

chambray that ubiquitous fabric for managers who care

about their cottons what a global viewpoint on dressing

an office in a train would suggest downsizing

but there are compensations well-depreciated shoes

hair heading for tax-haven grey inhibitions a write-off

behind bifocals his eyes close like antique shutters

to an ill-timed migraine a feature not welcome

in the open-face office this carriage is his castle

contact book an apocrypha but why am I counting

loose threads on a saint who moved aside for a lady

he’s wearing what so many of us travel to find

some sort of day some dream of a job