Saga

I have been whispering to the printer
since just after nine. It has given nothing,
only flashed ‘drum’ and whined and stopped
and whined and filled me full then stopped
and taken expectation somewhere hotter.

Where people don’t sit rubbing their lower back.
Where they lay flat, start early, turn themselves
when they can muster the effort and grease
the pages of their paperback, order another.

I re-read the error message to the office,
chairs turn, shake their heads, the printer
stutters, same prologue, different chapter.