Tech Support

He should have retired years ago,
this pale old man at his laptop.
I’m here to help as I always am
when he forgets his password.

Glory days framed on his walls,
awards and photos, a brilliant engineer,
impressive on the masthead,
shaking hands with the governor.

He should have retired years ago.
Is he an old dog stuck on routine?
Has he no golf buddies to hang with?
No hobbies? No grandchildren? No sunny patio?

Password reset done; he thanks me.
And I must move on to my next call.
Zachary in Accounting
just got the Blue Screen of Death.

*

Loose Cannon

He doesn’t buy Girl Scout Cookies
or popcorn or oranges or raffle tickets.
A framed photo of a jet ski
has pride of place on his desk.

He lunches with the custodians,
wears baggy pants and misshapen tees.
A hula dancer and palm tree grace the faded tie
he wears at mandatory conferences.

Management can’t peg him.
Transferred, demoted, reassigned,
asks the hard questions in meetings,
states facts they’d rather not hear.

Consultants in custom suits
correct the misspellings on his report,
dress it in their logoed presentation folder
and charge us 50K.

Can I help? he asks me,
the newbie with more zits than savvy.
Solves the problem, shows me how,
and won’t take any credit.

Too bad he’s such a loose cannon,
he could really be somebody here,
they cluck, diving deeply
into the synergy of their paradigm.

*

Joli Huelskamp lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Bewildering Stories, The Bluebird Word, and Brilliant Flash Fiction.