Poetry
Clerical Rites
Daily, ritually,
The office photocopier churns out documents.
Periodically, it protests
With an unceremonious stop work.
Denied initiation into the mysteries of its service
We channel a call to a higher power,
The priestess of photocopiers.
Productivity stalls.
The congregation waits.
Time passes.
Slowly, belatedly,
The priestess comes.
She approaches the altar,
Offerings in hand,
Disgruntled by the interruption
To her valued clerical rites.
Dispensing the symbols of communion:
Intoning, filling paper trays,
Manipulating mechanisms,
She unravels the mystery.
We return to our devotion
Until the next inevitable
Dispensing of rites.
© Christine M Knight
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