Everything Running Like Clockwork

I was so happily ensconced in my dreams
of incompetence, thinking South Africa the
analogue to Giovanni Guareschi’s com-
munist Italy of the post WWII years

This morning I sent out quote requests for
foreign language dictionaries in the most
resigned spirit; Reg Shoe of Terry Pratchett
fame would have been jealous of me

In total abnegation of personal desire for
accomplishment, I simply sent one request
for quotes after another, reveling in the
beautifully satisfying messages

That all the messages were rejected – balm
to my soul – until Hermien with her usual
efficiency called the bookshops and established
that these messages actually reached them

Shattering my dreams of reliving Guareschi and
Konsalik’s schemes depicted in their fiction – and
ere I could sulk to my heart’s content, quotes started
to arrive – what cheek this was

To offer so much efficiency to shatter my dreams of
repeating previous new regime’s failures in my own
country; every dictionary was blessed with a quote –
no more doubt – capitalism is alive

And well in the new South Africa, the Rainbow Nation
is operating with a ‘joie de vivre’ unequalled on earth –
I was sorely robbed of my sardonic sport of making fun
of my own political system;

Everything running like clockwork – except me, of course –
thank heaven for that!