Forgotten Words

Tidying round my house I often come across old notepads. Yesterday I found one from an old job. In it are random notes about stuff I had to do, scribbled semi-legible phone messages now long-irrelevant and doodles that I did while bored, in between tedious admin tasks.

The problem with me in employment is I'm very hardworking, very efficient but terrible at making myself look busy. While some colleagues always looked busy but weren't I was the opposite I'd be very busy, do what I needed to, then sit bored waiting for someone to go "here do this" often asking for more to do, much to the annoyance of everyone in the office and my boss.

I remember one morning, in a quiet moment between organising an awards ceremony for 200 pupils and invoicing 6 schools for a year's worth of courses, I was sat doodling teddy bears while nursing a cuppa. This was fine until my boss walked over saw an a4 sheet full of bears drawn by a then 25 year old woman. She looked at me like I was bonkers, said "I like that one best" and asked how the work was coming on. She was surprised to see I was on top of everything she had given me, ahead in fact. She smiled and left me to my bears but from then on I moved from doodles to writings. Which is how this next poem was born...