To Our Tone-Deaf Electorate

No! Goons ain’t rasping blue notes, anymore
than the rapist will be fighting you soon,
no matter how you heckle, snarl and roar.
Democracy can sing only one tune,
though morons end up on a sour note,
creating a melodic dissonance.
better suited to what the Nazis wrote
than to our contractual vigilance
that keeps us all on rough rivers afloat.
Just as plumbers owe us running water
after we have honored their pricing quote,
so you warrant that our sons and daughters
won’t face the desecration you avoid
by riding on the guarantees deployed

in our constitution. Do to others
as others do to you, by writ of law,
should serve to dissuade you from your druthers
to mock the wronged with self-righteous guffaws.
For one thing is certain, as Shakespeare wrote.
And that’s “the whirligig of time brings in
his revenges” on a dissonant note
for those who crow shrill music with a grin.
Indeed, you’re modulating strident keys
into a future that will come to rest
beside you with distraught sonorities.
And since the score’s inscribed at your behest,
no use to rue developments that skew
past harmonies. For they were screwed by you.

Born and bred in New Jersey, Frank worked in New York for many years. He loves music from Bach to Amy Winehouse, World Music, Latin, opera. Shakespeare is his consolation, writing his hobby. Frank likes poets Dylan Thomas, Keats, Wallace Stevens, Frost, Ginsberg, and Sylvia Plath. Read other articles by Frank.