the great reshuffle 

1-
soot dusted space
morning sun glare
floor to ceiling windows
leak streaked inside 
from too much rain
cubicle of cubicles
the corporate sweatshop 
that devoured me

2-
down, down, downsized
from a one hundred year old
money-trap, a thousand
square feet of accumulated
stuff to lose, memories are
not things, to a forever home
in the Blue Ridge foothills with
undressed windows, ambient green 

3-
the pandemic, people were dying,
they told us, “pack everything,
work from home”, a few weeks
turned into months into years
from cubicle to corner nook
sheltered, stir crazy, in place 
hummingbirds at the window 
squirrels in the hickory trees

4-
i don’t miss the commute
from dark dawn to dark dusk
the break room chatter, 
gossip, office politics ugly 
they’re telling us, “pack everything,
come back to the cubicles”, but
i have decided to stay where life has
balance, home where my heart is

~kat

NaPoWriMo 2023  Challenge Day Twenty-Three: write a poem of your own that has multiple numbered sections. Attempt to have each section be in dialogue with the others, like a song where a different person sings each verse, giving a different point of view. Set the poem in a specific place that you used to spend a lot of time in, but don’t spend time in anymore.