BUREAUCRACY

Bureaucracy
drives you crazy
boxing in
any legacy of happiness
it what pop psycho's call
"a state of mind"
extending their sovereignty
over our drops of humanity
in their all knowing persuasion
of controlling mankind
taking away by degrees
the privacy of our soul
with publicity's invasion
of recreating your image
on pleasing occasions
is their goal,
while you on your knees
praying they will ease up
to take away your cup
with their saucer
as you are trying
merely to read Chaucer
in the library
and told
on your folded exam
to be politically
and literally correct,
they are there in a scam
by their cameras in focus
over your shoulders
subject to face
an intellectual challenge
or sexual change
the profs. suddenly appear
like Kafka's bug
within university range
of intimidating to pull you in
to acknowledge
a contextual metamorphosis
and take this beaten rug
making you hiss,
it's the devil's business
wishing to rob you
of kissing you goodbye
as you are hit
and missing out
on your knowledge's joy
taken away from college
far from home
like an alchemist
wanting to make you
merely a chemical alloy
of an x or y chromosome
or an ally to be a toy
from every light affliction
in the book, bell and candle
of a discovered medicine
trying to defeat us in sin
but we laughingly look
at the adversary attacks
in a contrary way to face
by handling their party hacks
to pull and kick under duress
until we are recovered
from self pity and stress
sticking in our countenance
counting on grace
and the fullness of favor
from any chance
of adversity today.