'Tally With Reality 17/11/09 Poem by Margaret Alice

Time to prepare for tomorrow, to change
my dial from happiness to sorrow, getting
ready to charge the next hurdle, the ubi-
quitous production sheet, the bane of my
administrative life, accounting for every
moment I’m alive, every thought in my
head, justifying all to the thought police

Explaining every step I took, trying to prove
I am a soulless human being only existing
to serve, yesterday’s bad news made me
feel miserable enough to tackle my boring
document, tonight I have to scare myself
into doing my duty if I want to feel worthy
enough to breathe in peace

I can only bog down and do meaningless work
once I achieve a feeling of peace with being a
nonentity, I am getting ready, logically no inno-
vative being would ever divulge the thoughts
in its head, I must carefully weigh every word
that will be said, bureaucratic hypocrisy can
never tally with reality

Otherwise we would all have been extinct
already...