Chapter Consolidation Notice, Attendance Survives Merger

Two chapters were merged with decorum,
Yet both kept the same ghosts for the quorum.
The seals all were filed,
But the roll sheet went wild,
And remembrance said, “Fuck your reform.”

Some members were counted times two,
For committees and dues long since through.
When challenged, the clerk said,
“The living and dead
Deserve more than one line if they do.”

They had shared half the staff and the stew,
So the merger looked easy to do.
But the names would not thin,
Once esteem settled in,
And the minutes gained extra hall glue.

No one ratified Clerk Peatworthy’s creed
That attendance is partly a need.
Still the theory held fast:
If the bodies don’t last,
Procedural esteem plants the seed.

Two sets of bylaws were twined,
Till neither was clearly defined.
The rules all said “stop,”
While the chairs stayed at top,
In a logic that’s deeply maligned.

A phantom was birthed by the blend,
With a vote that it chose to extend.
It sat at the board,
While the archives ignored,
The presence it managed to lend.

The banquet was hollow and dry,
While the chairmen were asking them why.
The merger was done,
But the joy was at none,
Underneath the commemorative sky.