Consistency

Vacation work
swift currents
manual, masculine, mercenary : “ ya not at university now.”
The career place is a surprise.
Leisurely
time always for a second coffee.

Young and new
self-preservation raises a finger to lips
management approves.

Time elapses to confidence re confidential
I question a colleague about absent urgency.
He finds the English Language guilty
too sloppy
too imprecise
too ambiguous.
A catwalk is not a structure for felines
working day does quantify work
both are descriptors
neither is literal.

Most of the staff here in his opinion
were like a car never extended
the prevailing atrophy typified by Lester
still very young but
after almost a decade at such slow speed
at such low revolutions
engine capacity was lost. Forever.

26 years later
quarter of a century since we were colleagues
the former confidant and I talk.
He is still in the same workplace
as is the example used.
For Lester it is the only job he has known
the one he came to from high school
I contrast extinct stability with modern career migration.

The reply is snapped.
A good employee.
Dedicated.
Hard-working.
He always was.