Poetry that did not reach its intended audience.

Every couple of days, I have to write up our company's AFE administrator and request that a recently-closed AFE be reopened, so that I can enter an invoice into it, if the invoice date is older than the AFE's termination date.

I get really bored with the repetitive emails, so I have asked in a variety of fashions, from mildly apologetic, to overly enthusiastic, to slightly ironic. Each and every time, I get an identical response: "Hi, this is now opened." The time before last, I thought to myself as I searched for new words to make a routine email less monotonous, "Next time, I should just write a poem."

So this time, I did, in limerick form:

From: Me
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 1:29 PM
Subject: An AFE...

I have this invoice to key,
But alas, the poor AFE
Has been terminated,
But the invoice is dated
July, so please open it for me?

AFE# 200631065

It took only a couple of minutes to compose, and I sent it off, feeling rather pleased, and hopeful that the uniqueness would add some fun to the administrator's day, and perhaps invite a more interesting response.

My hopefulness was completely wasted. This was the administator's reply:

Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 1:42 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: An AFE...

Hi, this is now opened.


Did they not even notice it was a limerick? Or did they not even care? Who knows. Either way, having your creative efforts unnoticed is always a little deflating, even if it is just a limerick.