Please Have a Seat
You sit. And the vinyl
chair cushion slowly exhales.
Around you, banter
of strangers – the acid
camaraderie of the office.
Hard bright voices of women
around the coffee machine.
This is their domain.
Here they enact their days
that are not yours.
Who is behind the inner door?
Who, ensconced
on a high-backed leather throne,
will hear your sad petition?
He is The Appointed.
You have the appointment.
He has what you need,
but he is needy too.
Think of him as human while you wait.
So it goes in this world.
Think of him as needing.
Give him a face while you bide your time
there, in your chair,
clutching your requisition and the fee.
And burnish your words,
burnish the words
you'll tender as your plea.
– Robyn Sarah (from the TLS)
(At top, actor Burghart Klaubner plays the Pastor, all-round enforcer of social order in The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke – a story about the eternal and unbreakable embrace between power and sadism.)