meetings

all those minutes
not used up in meetings,
spent fiddling with switches and confusing cords,
dialing wrong numbers on the phone,
running out to find missing people,
indulging in idle chatter about gossip and pop culture,
would they add up to a whole meeting?
or a month of meetings?

my work life is spent in meetings,
blocked out in morning meetings,
afternoon meetings,
emergency meetings,
big and small meetings,
short and long meetings,
smooth meetings,
prickly meetings.

there are conversations about meetings,
meetings about meetings,
emails that chase each other around in circles
and end with a meeting,
and maybe a small punctuation mark
(for lunch).

somewhere in between
there begins a subtle shift
from anonymous "accepted"
to Meeting Organizer
and i wonder
how we would get anything done
without meetings.