I wish that I had never taken the job
Of reporting church meetings each month;
For recording the meetings my tape is too short
And the skill of shorthand I don’t have;
They waffle and waffle, from beginning to end
Their decisions are lost in the fray;
Everyone wants to be talking at once
No one listens to who said – what – when;
In the confusion I lose track of the thread
It’s all going round and round in my head;
I want to shout – SILENCE – but then
I find I have snapped my pencil instead!
The tape quits in the middle of the church Summer Fayre
And restarts again – with the Treasurers’ despair;
Transcribing that tape is a constant nightmare,
Taking hours and hours, I’m tearing my hair;
What DO I pick out, What do I SAY?
I often wish now that I could just run away;
But it has to be done, typed up and passed out
In time, so by all it’s supposedly read;
Before the next meeting at the Vicarage takes place
If not – Oh golly – I’ll wish I was dead.

Jackie S Brooks
PCC Secretary
St. Peters Church, Norton
15^th July 2003