I have a penchant for love songs that grow from somewhat atypical settings. Indeed, I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "typical" place for love to bloom. In "Cubicle Number 5," we meet two people who work in close proximity, but who rarely acknowledge each other.
But that will change ...
Lyrics
Cubicle Number Five
He worked in accounting on the twenty-eighth floor
In cubicle number five
It wasn’t so exciting, he didn’t have a door
But he survived
And there was Jennifer, who for a while had been
In cubicle number six
He could hear her sigh and curse at her screen
At another problem she had to fix
He wondered if a girl like Jennifer
Would even know that he was alive
Just that mousy boy pushing numbers
In cubicle number five
So he’d repeat to himself these lines …
It could happen, cuz throughout history
Stranger things have come true
It might come as a surprise
it might be a mystery
But It could happen for me and you
One day he thought he saw an apparition
Perhaps the work was clouding his mind
But it was Jen there at his partition
Not what he expected to find
She asked if he wanted a coffee
And he stammered "That sounded nice"
He didn’t have the nerve to tell her
She didn’t have to ask twice
She talked about her family
Her mother in Montreal
How her father had left them when they were just kids
Her sister Wendy, her brother Paul
And the time flew by in the wink of an eye
'Til they thought they'd better get back
She said "I'm focused now on all that I have
Instead of the things I lack"
The next day her cubicle looked cold and empty
No coat, no bag, no phone
He asked if anyone knew where Jennifer was
They said they had heard
She’d started working from home
Jen was a Blue Jays rooter
She had that pennant on her cubicle wall
She was the company’s tech trouble shooter
So he knew that he could call
If he had to fix a problem of any kind
She could show him how
And there was no doubt whatsoever in his mind
He had a problem now
He sat without moving for quite a while
Till he decided to send Jen a text
He wrote, “Hi Jen, I just noticed
You’re not at your desk”
Then he took a deep breath and typed again
He said, “I liked our coffee yesterday”
He said he would love to do that again
Then she replied, “How about today?”
Then he wrote her a longer text
His hands were shaking like a leaf
And when he sent Jen this message
He was caught between fear and relief
He said …
It could happen, cuz throughout history
Stranger things have come true
It might come as a surprise
it might be a mystery
But It could happen for me and you
A tiny ding, such a simple thing
Signaled Jen’s reply
She said, “The only way it will happen
Is if we give it a try"
It could happen, cuz throughout history
Stranger things have come true
It might come as a surprise
it might be a mystery
But It could happen for me and you
He worked in accounting on the twenty-eighth floor
In cubicle number five
© Gary Poole 2023