The WFH Lament
A small, desperate rhyme for the keyboard-bound
When I start thinking in couplets, I’m nearing the end of my tether
And I feel guilty about it. As an inessential worker, I don’t have to be on the front lines every day, risking my life so other people can have health care and groceries and a decent latte. I know I’m lucky.
Still, there are days when the walls close in as I commute the ten feet from my bedroom to my office, and today was one such day. Perhaps you are in a position to relate. If so, I offer you this dogged doggerel, the product of my quarantine-disordered brain:
The WFH Lament; or, WTF Happened To Normal?
The world is too much with us, Now that we work from home. It seems we never can break free From Google Meets on Chrome.
Our colleagues and our clients Are talking heads in squares (we’ve made a private science of checking out their lairs).
And that’s about the only thrill In our online working day, ’Til happy hour, when we swill Our screw-top Chardonnay.
From early morn to late at night We labor at our screens. We toil on by laptop light And wonder what it means.
So circumscribed our lives are now, We rarely leave our rooms. Our interface with humankind Has been reduced to Zooms.
Meanwhile, our kids have run amok; Our tempers all are churning From wrestling with the mysteries Of so-called distance learning.
Oh, when at last will we break free From cabin fever endemic? There’s no horizon we can see, No end to this pandemic.
Yet surely, soon the tide must turn, And life can start again. Our kids will go to school to learn — We just wish we knew when.
Until there’re treatments or vaccine, We’re stuck with isolation, With thoughts of loved ones long-unseen And that dreamed-of vacation.
My fellow humans, please stay strong — Don’t get under the weather. For though this crisis may seem long, We’ll see it through together.
From my workspace to yours, wishing you safety, health, and as many smiles as you can need to get you through another day.
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I’m a writer, educator, voice actor, and sometimes a horse whisperer (when they feel like listening). Published in The Startup, Writing Cooperative, P.S. I Love You, The Ascent, Illumination, The Narrative, and more. Award-winning short fiction in magazines & journals. Visit me at www.JanMFlynn.net.
