Hard-Working Bureaucrats [revised] Poem by Margaret Alice Second

After talking about my sister's Gatsby wedding
and sending my nephew inspirational quotes
on fatherhood, I'm bored - and there's a text to
translate line by line; it's warming up outside -

I've had my fun, bought a Mandela poster and
pink rose for the study at home, now headache
interferes with my ability to concentrate - after
a block of swiss chocolate and eating a packet

Of cheese-and-green-onion popcorn there's no
turning back - even my miracle herbal tea can't
stop this descent into Milton's Paradise Lost; I
have been reading the meaning of periwinkle -

Littorina littorea, sea snail in vibrant violet blue -
the Snow Queen blue I had tried to bring into
my work-station and deposited on my son's bed
in a beautiful violet-blue blanket: the very same

Son who kept us awake last night, running with
the dogs noisily while his parents, hard-working
bureaucrats, unsuccessfully tried to sleep - no
wonder I can't keep my eyes open any more…

[30 September 2014]