Sinking Into Oblivion [rev] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

French criminal cases accompanied by Barcarolle
Tales of Hoffmann against the rapid machine-gun
voices of my indefatigable colleagues; then ballet:
Nutcracker Suite Divertissement which I redesign
for small children in long rows dressed as fairies,
goblins, flowers with green stalks goose-stepping

In time with the music - flowers opening petals in
circular movements, up, down & around my work
station I go, enacting the scenes; rewriting stilted
French sentences in between, finally finished and
after handing over my magnum opus, a flowering
& end result of my translation genius, the fatigue

From last night of watching James Bond movies
showing non-stop on one TV channel, becomes
overwhelming & the dancing images disappear -
it's only me here, my brain blinking out in a steel
clamp tightening until I give up completely and
decide to quietly die - sinking into oblivion…