I did not learn Jane Austen for this. I did not scorn Darcy in order to change the date in a box. I did not writhe in shame with Elizabeth in order to stick labels on things. I did not hate Wickham to tick items off an invoice. I did not long for love to play thump-STAMP-thump. Patience is not for painful boredom and the ticking of an office clock. Existence must not begin at 5pm each night. It is not greed that makes me long for more. It is the fear that after all, this is all there is.

© Scarlet Th 18 January 2001

Note: After three years of working in an exceedingly boring job, I was beginning to feel like the animals you see in bad zoos when they've been in a small cage for too long - swinging their heads from side to side and dribbling. I am not middle class and I don't think that I simply deserve a good job. But if my fate is to stick labels on things for the rest of my life, I can only hope that the rest of my life is very brief indeed.

«Menu»