Meeting

We wait for the meeting to begin,
drink coffee, talk.
A few silent souls are reading.

Tell every person what we need:
knowledge, perhaps, or persuasion,
thus assigning pain,

since that is what we share
and what we gain
as the product of required meetings.

We are like a train uncoupled  
or a herd prepared
to drift forever and ever.,

More often than not, we stampede
or keep to rails,
so never expand our thinking.

Who has not heard
that thinking of the herd is omniscient?
That rails of steel
make an army in the field the finest.

If the meeting fails,
break the glass and pull the handle,
having already lit
waste paper in the basket.

Now it’s time for a final adjustment:
Stand up, snort aloud your disgust,
and announce, “I quit.”