Poem: This Is Bad Enough

http://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poetry/poems/bad-enough

This Is Bad Enough

This is bad enough
So please …

Don’t give me 
gobbledegook.

Don’t give me
pages and dense pages
and 
“this leaflet aims to explain … ”

Don’t give me 
really dodgy photocopying
and 
“DO NOT REMOVE 
FOR REFERENCE ONLY.”

Don’t give me 
“drafted in collaboration with 
a multidisciplinary stakeholder 
partnership consultation 
short-life project working group.”
I mean is this about 
you guys
or me?

This is hard enough
So please:

Don’t leave me
oddly none the wiser or
listening till my eyes are 
glazing over.

Don’t leave me
wondering what on earth that was about,
feeling like it’s rude to ask
or consenting to goodness knows what.

Don’t leave me
lost in another language
adrift in bad translation.

Don’t leave me
chucking it in the bin
Don’t leave me
leaving in the state I’m in.

Don’t leave me
feeling even more clueless
than I did before any of this 
happened.

This is tough enough
So please:

Make it relevant, 
understandable –
or reasonably
readable
at least.

Why not put in
pictures
or sketches,
or something to
guide me through?

I mean how hard can it be 
for the people 
who are steeped in this stuff
to keep it up-to-date?

And you know what I’d appreciate?
A little time to take it in
a little time to show them at home
a little time to ask “What’s that?”
a little time to talk on the phone.

So give us
the clarity, right from the start
the contacts, there at the end.

Give us the info 
you know we need to know.
Show us the facts, 
some figures
And don’t forget our feelings.

Because this is bad 
and hard 
and tough enough
so please speak 
like a human 
make it better 
not worse. 

Elspeth Murray