Style Guides Stole My Brain

then
I was certain
of semi versus colon
phrase versus clause
en versus em
stop versus pause

but now
Defence does it this way, Academia, that
and for each I must wear a uniquely styled hat
Tech sector, plain English; Marketing, spin
little wonder my head’s in the shape it’s in
and I spend my days completely confounded
debating if words should be merged or compounded
and whether it’s ‘a ton’ or ’1 ton’ or ‘one tonne’
(get that one wrong and your career’s good as done)
if I can dash with impunity or must double-dot
and when I must…
..and when I must not
and the comma, the comma—oh, don’t get me started!
it once knew its place; now it’s upped and departed
my participally dangling brain in revolt

Oxford, Strunk and Chicago,
it’s your @:^#;$\,&*! fault

————————-

Thanks to The Laughing Housewife for her CoWA this week which cheered me up immensely after a rather gruelling morning at the dentist

Desk Daydreams (inspired by the 4minutewriter)

Reduce waste, improve service levels

I’m sailing down the Mekong

implement LEAN techniques

lilt of Mandarin in my ears

reduce bottlenecks, manage cash flows

building schools in Vietnam

forecast seasonality peaks

to the sound of children’s cheers

 

filming critters in the Galapagos

giant tortoise and marine iguana

orangutans in Borneo

and Amazonian flora and fauna

 

dining in the Shanghai Bund

cycling through rural China

catching Tokyo no kabuki-za

and jazz in a New York diner

 

capturing Northern winter snows

ancient men in Parisian alleys

icebergs in Antarctica

vineyards in Chilean valleys

Optimize

camping out on English moors

Streamline

for some creative brooding

Synchronize

writing that novel in my head

but right now work’s intruding!

Read the 4minutewriter here

A day at the office

Under the fluorescent lights,
she takes him
through the details of the report,
but he is undone
by her scent
and thinks, instead,
of them as one, his lips
on hers, silencing
the banality of profit peaks and dips;
of her sensible shoes carelessly
discarded in a tell-tale trail;
of liberating her
chastised fireball hair
into a cascading
mess across his chest;
of her  scent, illicit, on his thighs…
“Do you have any questions?”
He sighs ,
“Sorry, can you repeat that. I was distracted by the cost blowout in the 3^rd quarter.”

Under the flourescent lights,
his devil-dark eyes
intoxicate her, the arousing effects
of his easy smile
and casual wearing of perfect clothes,
undiminished In the rude glare,
but, she knows
dreams of them are hopeless; he barely
notices her when they meet;
he isn’t even listening now as she speaks:
“Do you have any questions?”