Stars Masters Experts Slaves

by Korvus Korax / July 25th, 2021

Stars   of the abject farce
              at the heart of political theatre

masters   of the flawlessly timed
                            sublime empty gesture

       experts   at extolling the virtues
                            of ineffective measures

       slaves   to their need to pay heed
                            to their egos' seedy pleas

              willing victims all   of the siren call
                            that is the world of perks
that opens to those who agree to “play ball”


career politicians
corruption's  not-so-undercover ushers
              driven   by their chafing ambition

by their insatiable hunger
for narcissistic  influence and affluence
                                   status and recognition

       their impressive Potemkin lives
       spent touting  the latest faddish fix
                     for ever-pressing problems
                                   that mostly don't exist

all the while fostering the oddly analogous
                     every-bit-as-duplicitous myth
that actual problems can easily be solved
for which simple solutions  simply don't exist

proving   with every heavily aired
                            platitude-stuffed utterance
that the range of vacant soundbites
far exceeds  the reach of genuine substance;


vanquished  for the most part
              in time  by others just as they
had vanquished countless others in their day

and robed as they are
in the arrogance of office
are doomed   in the main to fall prey

       to the lazy lure of skipping
       even the pretense of listening
                     to what their constituents say

              and to more than the mere spectre
                                   of electoral failure
              in line with the fickle cyclical nature
                                   of ballot-box politics

as the great lost/won
spinning wheel is spun  a few fateful rotations
                                   by time's untiring hands

and finally lands on "lost"  for suddenly sullen
long-ensconced  dumbstruck incumbents
                     and stunningly  settles on "won"
                     for just-as-stunned ecstatic others.
From his lofty perch near the top of the earth, Korvus observes the whirling world of humans, with equal parts wonder, disgust, and amusement. Korvus is the author of the unpublished book "RED PILL POEMS: The Poetry of Empire, Politics and Power" and may be reached at ravenzroost@protonmail.com Read other articles by Korvus.

This article was posted on Sunday, July 25th, 2021 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.