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