Live Broadcast of a Political Rally

For a minute or so, I watched
the candidate put on a show.
The deprived ignorant people
stuffed it all in their heads.

His face should have rotted
from the lies he told,
the weird parables where
the thief was a good guy.

But his features held
their own, for an hour
of the engaged crowd
compulsively quenching

on his falsehoods.
The most insincere man
on the planet and his dribble
couldn’t roll down their

open throats fast enough.
But that is where we
are these days, so many
in thrall to the hoodlum,

the law can’t catch its breath.
I turned him off.
The show continued
but not on my account.

I went for a walk,
talked to a neighbor,
sat by the pond
in a local park.

Geese and ducks came up to
me in search of food.
Anything would do.
It didn’t have to be good for them.

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, North Dakota Quarterly and Dissident Voice. Latest books, ”Between Two Fires”, “Covert” and “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in California Quarterly, Birmingham Arts Journal, La Presa and Shot Glass Journal. Read other articles by John.