Consultations Poem by Tom Courtney

All our consultations
in structured voices
the formulations of our ideas
and manifestations of yours and mine
our fine-wired deliberations
attempts to sway the masses
attitudes reflections affectations
I turn to you
you bend to me
affiliations
shared sensations
items on the agenda
blurred connotations
Go back and seek elucidation

After all the discussions have unwound
and wound up to the point
our aggregations of these ideas
and our imaginations
can’t you just agree with me? !

and I with you?
I could seek another dissertation
but can’t you see my
so familiar thing?

We sit in truth and fiction

I’m sure you’ll tell me all
That is within you
You can see I hold nothing back
Ever onwards towards the elusive agreement
I can see it looming on the horizon
Ever upwards to a higher level
I can feel it, my hands gesticulating

Write it down! Someone said
Write it down! A charter
We’re in agreement
Put it in a constitution
before it vanishes
into the thin air between us

Enumerate the points within it
Create the order that we
require for our governance
Shape the language of our covenant

Proud women and men stand forth
and count upon your fingers
We need ten bodies for our quorum
Each voice speak now
entreating God for His guidance
I have now said my piece
and sit in peace, and silence

The roaming growling essence is upon us
The simple majority is our mandate
Let us act quickly now
Governance is nigh
We are within it!
A conversation trivializes our process
Stick to the point!

We require clarity
Give me something we can communicate
Brevity
Yield us only what must be dealt
Continuity
Let’s have with all our history
History?
We’ll write our present deliberations
Into the textbooks
My pencil broke!
Has anything been left
To chance? !

Tonight the President
will speak to the nation
tonight on prime time the results
Of all our consultations
no elaborations are necessary
The meeting of our minds
is sufficient

The Congress is in session!
Let no one sigh within it