The Bureaucrats by Roque Dalton The bureaucrats swim in a stormy sea of boredom. Behind their hideous yawns they're the first to murder tenderness they end up with sick livers and die clutching the telephone their yellow eyes pinned to the clock. They have exquisite handwriting and buy themselves neckties they suffer strokes when they find out that their daughters masturbate they owe their tailor bill they're barflies they read the Reader's Digest and Neruda's love poems they attend the Italian opera they bless themselves they sign strong anti-Communist manifestos adultery is their undoing they commit suicide without pride they profess faith in sports and are ashamed terribly ashamed that their father was a carpenter