Dance Troupe On Roof

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Terry Pratchett has Carpet people, Mary
Norton has the Borrowers in the wainscot
and Margaret Alice has a Dance Troupe on
the roof practising their running steps and
pas-de-deux in the early morning, they must
be called the Rat Cast, sounding like a whole
herd of reindeer at times, I fearfully watch the
ceiling to see them come tumbling down

But now it is time for the cheerleading team in
my head to take the lead to spur me on to doing
my production sheet, I must fight the rising panic
and become ruthless in driving myself to focus on
an endless list of one page Interpol messages and
handwritten sheets to the President, every word must
be accounted for, my only comfort is that we are not yet
counting letters, we used to count pages

What a mercy that ‘words received’ is currently the limit
heaven knows for how long, I must stop contemplating
the evils of listmaking and start immediately, everybody
recommends to add to the list on a daily basis, to inhale
the poison of administration frequently so as to be com-
pleted when it must be handed in, I cannot live in the
noxious fumes of bureaucracy ALL the time, life is
toxic enough just doing routine jobs

Now the psychosomatic stomach ache is reserved for
production sheet day, should I update all the time I
would die of psychosomatic pain!


******* ******* ******* ******* *******

Early morning embittered meditation to enable
me to make the list, I have been psyching up the
cheerleading team since last night, all I got for
my pains is stomach ache and tension headache
to boot

The joys of bureaucracy is, as always, indescribable
- after stealing time to write down my bitter thoughts
I am off to the horizon chasing the illusive chimera
and mirage of the perfect list and my life is dross
today…

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