My Bosses Want Me to Attend the Company Mindfulness Session

Julian Day




ostensibly to learn some sort of lukewarm, rehashed stoicism
but probably because they read something
by a Thought Leader on HBR, LinkedIn, or Medium
about how meditation reduces sick days
by 2-3.5%, and so I know what’s expected,
I show up, listen to the tinny video, and tune out
until something starts to click, click, click,        
and all around me the walls start to crumble,
the other people stir nervously,
and then the ground gives way, suddenly
sending me whooshing up towards the cosmos,
my body trailing laughter and streams of thin orange light,
and no, I hear them yelling, stop, stop,
this isn’t what we wanted, this isn’t
adding any sort of value.








Julian Day lives in Winnipeg. His work has recently appeared in Juniper and Ghost City Review, and his debut chapbook will be published by Anstruther Press in early 2021.