Disillusioned Academic

Sensible shoes and neutral-colored, wrinkle-free Travelsmith suits
Spectacled scholars who don't read maps well wandering the streets of an economically depressed city trying to rebuild
Wearing plastic nametags to show they belong
somewhere else.

It is the same each year.

We sit in conference rooms in expensive downtown hotels
staring at impossibly ugly design on commercial carpets
trapped in by heavy drapes on windows
view shielded of what is going on OUT THERE-
what REALLY matters.

I breathe yoga breaths, cross and uncross my legs, perform kegel exercises, and then count
bald heads, ceiling tiles, neck fat rolls, ums, pretentious facial hair sporters, pen clickers, trendy glasses,
female bald spots, name droppers, finger tappers, throat clearers
 and wonder

Why am I being read to?