Opportunity Cost

Hundreds of people
work suffocating jobs
fall asleep at their desks
on coffee-ringed papers
while watching porn,
fight daily through
traffic and paper jamming
the weight of deadlines
the death of line waits
petty affairs, pencil(skirt)s
with broken leads
fluorescent tubes going out
in convulsive fits --
hundreds of people
decay in their cubicles
so row after row of their
empty windows
glow golden at night
and carve out a glittering skyline,
multitudes go gray
in loveless austere and lonely offices
just so you can see those lights
and feel the beauty and
melancholy
you prize so dearly.
♠ ♠ ♠
If you can get the Robert Hayden reference, I will love you.