Pyramid

Spies roam the halls
of our public schools
they are men
who served undercover
in Central Asia
now they raid
lockers
target
cost of living
increases
collective bargaining
agreements
negotiated for
teachers
because the
Russians
are no longer
the Red Menace

What offends
the barons
those oligarchic
court jesters
who fancy themselves
statesmen
is
conscience
the notion that
there are
helping professions
how could anyone
go into
a line of
enterprise
that does not have to
squeeze out
a hosanna and an amen
to conceal
that it is
in fact
a pyramid.

Jeremy Nathan Marks lives in London, Ontario. New work is appearing this fall in So It Goes, The Journal of Expressive Writing, Unlikely Stories, Chiron Review, Boog City, Bewildering Stories, and Ginosko Review. Read other articles by Jeremy Nathan.