The Smug Professional

They said I was a rebel
To try to grow my hair,
But I was wary
Of the description.
It lacked conviction.
I was no rebel.
I was a square,
Who listened to his teachers,
And saw them
Not as squalid creatures
From another planet,
But as educators
And dictators of the truth,
Not to be tormented and scorned
By a spotty youth.
I thought my friends uncouth
With their loud behaviour,
Caring not a jot for Octavia;
They thought
Me inferior
And called me a queer, while
They spent evenings at the pub
Getting beerier and beerier.
Always cheerier than me.
But not now,
When I am become
A paragon of modernity,
Consultant of prosperity,
Politician with
Pony tail.
They thought that
I would fail
And would
Never have a whale
Of a time.
Oh how sublime.
The victory of years.
The bloody queers;
The nature of
Their occupations,
I cannot guess.
They dared to see more value
In laughter than success.

Poem Study Notes:

A very early poem in which the poet, newly embarked on an IT career, expressed concerns about the nature of his new peer group and about how the new environment would change him personally.

Perhaps by expelling The Smug Professional in poetic form, the poet hoped to avoid a physical takeover.

20 years later and still working in IT, has the poet become The Smug Professional? Did he temporarily become The Smug Professional but then revert? Does the Smug Professional even exist? Don't tune into the next installment to find out because there won't be one ...

In 1997ish the poet entered a poetry competition for the first time called the 'London Poem of the Month'. It was a very small competition and I don't think it runs anymore, but anyway this poem was the winner. Since then the poet has not entered any other poetry competitions for fear of ruining his 100% success rate. Do I detect signs of smugness? Perhaps we have something of The Smug Poet here ...