Office parties can be wonderful, especially if your coworkers are your closest friends. I’ve had that. It’s made for late nights, tons of laughter, and occasionally great dancing, singing at the tops of our lungs.
But office parties can also be fraught with awkward moments. One time, at an office party many years ago, my boss told me he wanted to see me get drunk. Needless to say, I did not. At another office party in another year in another workplace, the big boss (the boss of the other bosses) tried to chit-chat and ha-ha-ha with all of the employees and act like we were all friends when really he never once asked any of us how we were really doing.
At another office party (different employer), this time for Halloween, I wore a wig (neon orange, pixie cut) and many of my co-workers didn’t recognize me. I’m not sure if that says more about them or me or our relationship with each other.
All of this brings me to the following poem by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz:
The title of this blog is the title of the poem. Poem copyright ©2009 by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz from her poetry collection, Everything is Everything (Write Bloody Publishing, 2010). Reprinted by permission of Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz and the publisher. First printed in Rattle, Vol. 15, no. 2, Winter 2009.
You can find Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz on Twitter & Instagram using the same handle: coaptowicz. A big thank you to Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz for letting me feature her work.
It’s National Poetry Month. Every week during the month of April, I will be sharing a poem I love from a contemporary writer. I hope to pique your interest in poetry, if it needs to be piqued, and to show you that a really great poem can be accessible to all.
If you missed the other poems I featured, you can find them here and here.
“See” you all next week with another great poem!
Photo credit: Kelsey Chance from Unsplash.com