The slightest deviation from the norm
The auditors refuse to tolerate
Whenever one is filling out the form.

The room is cramped and smotheringly warm
Where one is working to eradicate
The slightest deviation from the norm.

All records, facts, and figures must conform
And must be clear, complete, and up-to-date
Whenever one is filling out the form.

The crackle of a sudden thunderstorm
May tempt a notary to contemplate
The slightest deviation from the norm,

But raindrops on the windowpane perform
A canticle one cannot duplicate
Whenever one is filling out the form.
Is such devotion to the uniform
A kind of love, that one would abnegate
The slightest deviation from the norm
Whenever one is filling out the form?

Greg Williamson

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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 11 Number 9, on page 36
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