Tuesday, May 18, 2021

When Joe Came to Visit After He Quit Forever

When Joe to visit

After he quit forever

We all had to admit

That his skin looked great


All his acne was gone

And his hair looked great

And he wasn’t in dress code

And we realized

That was the first time

We’d ever seen Joe

Out of dress code

Because Joe never went out

After work with the rest of us


He kept to himself

Did the eight thirty to four thirty

And then went home

Barely speaking to anyone


The day he mentioned

Quietly to someone

In the break room

That he had put in

His two week notice

We weren’t sure

Whether or not

We should get him a cake or not

Because he wasn’t all that close

To anybody in the office


We ended up

Just getting him a card

With a giftcard in it

For Chili’s

And he thanked us

And we all went about our day

And at the end of the day

He left

And we assumed

We’d never see him again


But two months later

He came back to visit

And he seemed so cheerful

And friendly


We’d never had

A past employee

Come back to visit us

Even the ones

Who went out for drinks

After work

And so we weren’t sure

What to do

But Joe just sat himself

In the break room

And stayed there all day

From ten to three-thirty

Talking to people

And having coffee

And there was some discussion

In the manager’s office

About whether or not

Someone should ask Joe to leave

But he wasn’t being disruptive

And he said he missed us

And that was so nice

That we didn’t see any reason

Not to chat with him

And catch up

Although it wasn’t really catching up

Because we never knew

What was going on with Joe ever

So this was all new information to us


We found out

That he doesn’t have a new job

But that’s okay

Because he had saved some money over the year

Mainly by having no hobbies or passions

And never eating out or having drinks after work

And he lives with his aunt

Who is mostly deaf and stays in her room

And she doesn’t charge him rent

And his car is paid off

And somehow never needs work

Even though it’s got five hundred thousand miles on it


He was living off his savings

And one day he woke up

With nothing to do

Because when you quit your job

And you have no interests

You often find yourself

Waking up

With nothing to do

And he decided

That he wanted to come visit us

And see how it felt

To be somewhere

Where you used to work

But where you weren’t working anymore


He found that it was strange

And he felt the discomfort

That we were feeling

Having him there

And so at three-thirty

He shook all of our hands

And let us know

That he was going to be at Chili’s

After work

So that he could use his gift card

And if any of us

Wanted to join him

That would be fun

And we usually love drinks at Chili’s

After work

But this time, we all decided

To go home

Except for Tara

Who will have a drink

With just about anyone

And the next day she told us

That Joe didn’t show up anyway

But that she met some guys

From Toledo

Who were visiting the area

And she made friends with them

And had a great time


We never heard from Joe again

After that

But we hope he’s doing well


Now, we should probably

Talk about what we’re going to do

Once the second copy machine

Is being serviced


We need to have

A plan

For that

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