The New Regime Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Did I tell you about the time Sister Sunshine
retired from the bureau and left me alone,
that she took all the laughter & fun with her,
the fizzle in the air, the absurd remarks, us
joking around as we counseled our boss on
his fear of serial killers and psychopaths?

My new cold-blooded Mother Superior had
never heard of singing in words, and Marie
Antoinette, administrator par excellence, kept
changing Superior instructions until I cried
every night in my bed, then dreaming of
the wonderful time when Sister Sunshine

Enriched everything with humour creating
pure joy within the bizarre bringing a life
of such joie de vivre; when she had to retire,
she simply left and the meaning of words
in the bureau was lost, darkness descended
as Marie Antoinette sought vengeance

For the short-circuiting caused by my
wandering mind in the cold efficiency
of the quiet new bureau regime