[Previous] [Menu] [Next]

Page 163

How the political mind rambles -- from Clinton
to a cigar in the Bush (worth two in the hand?)
to the vacUUmous W, a man of acuity or vacuity --
opinions vary; from literature to politerature (a form
of pollutics -- no relationship to Clinton's IMpolite
rapture); from words to those who waste
our words, doing so much crap "for our children,"
that "children" becomes a nasty word. "Let me
make one thing perfectly clear," says mud.
"We are not going to be [fill in the blank-ed]
by a [fill in the blank] who [fill in the blank --
or please don't!]." All political speeches
are the same, except for occasional syntactic
blanks to be filled in by speech writers,
based on the latest polls. I'd like to hear
a speech with just the hot buttons found
by polls and surveys, minus the trimmings:
"Unjust war based on lies, huge budget deficit,
economy stalled, I'm smarter...". Or better yet,
just the structure, minus the so-called substance
(political speeches are a form of substance abuse):
"I stand before you today, a man who, if elected,
will ______________ and ____________, bringing you
a nation of ____________ and ___________
for ALL the people...". Or best of all (by far)
just give us the blanks, ten minutes, no, an hour
of silence, followed by "wild applause", which is
what we call the applause of the very tame), no,
TWO hours of silence, a flat, smooth silence
upon which a poem might splatter and stick.

Note: "A cigar in the Bush" – Clinton apparently stimulated Monica Lewinski with a cigar. "Bush" is slang for a woman's genital hair. The two U's in vacUUmous adumbrate the dumb (supposedly) George DoubleU. "Politerature" – political or politicized literature, with hints of pollute and polite.

Per the last two lines, a blank page (to hold onto a poetry pancake) should probably not be Teflon. Poetry requires a little skill (or skillet). (This metaphor needs oil.)

[Previous] [Menu] [Next]