Nobody

By Cliff Lake

 

Nobody

 

When the memos stopped arriving

He began to suspect he was nobody,

An inconvenience for his credit score.

On the third day,

He was certain that he had become

Unnoticeable,

And forgotten.

He thought about going to HR,

But if he had become nobody,

Or at least unnoticeable,

They might close his files and

Take him off payroll.

Also inconvenient for credit scoring…

On the elevator,

They didn’t speak to him,

He did not remember if they ever had –

Maybe he had always been

Nobody.

That might explain his

Lack of advancement.

Because he was unnoticeable and

Not anybody.

On the way home he realized that

If he was nobody,

He could probably do anything

And get away with it.

He bought a gun.

It was easy.

He was nobody

And had no priors.

He went to a liquor store.

The shopkeeper ducked.

He had no bullets.

They don’t sell those

To just anybody.

The camera didn’t know he was nobody,

And the police didn’t either.

When he explained,

The arresting officer was not amused.

Back at work,

The IT department fixed the glitch.

At the monthly meeting

The complained they had been informed of it

By nobody.

If only…

 

Cliff Lake 7/30/2024

Copyright © Clifford Lake 2024

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