pimp, instead of pope,
in New Vatican, DC,
the village idiot & his seven dwarves
                                joint chiefs cruise situation rec center,
chalk custom cue sticks in nuclear blue

on an HD TV used as pool table,
they shoot billiards with eyeballs —
                                                   no sockets,
                                                   not pockets empty
&                                                                threadbare,
playing for trophies —
                flocks of minds
&             cultural coins,
swapping reason for spare change

the digital felt is a shifting mirage
                        a soft veneer cloaking hard core —
                                                                        no cushions
                                                                        no english,
but spin doctors prescribing sound bites
&                                   geek speak,
                       splitting tongues
                       knotting ears —
                                              clever like a fox
                                              dressed as pooh bear,
                                              hanging by corner pockets
                                              hiding 8 balls
                                              eager to share their honey
in five gram vials

Dubya held an easter egg hunt for WMD
in the sands instead of the Bushes,
searching everywhere for his rabbit,
to make daddy proud

in crack back flashes,
or crack flashbacks —
in misremembered dream,
campus cop with flashlight
became voice of God
anointing his dementia

schooled to con & cut
but not connect,
prepared to reap harvests of wild oats
                        sown in besotted skull pots
                               in tiered fear-fertilized gardens —
grain already fermented to froth
        served in silvered media cups
                 for the yale & heartless

supremely courted, then dubbed,
Shrub is more menace than apprentice,
fiddlin’ with what he cannot comprehend,
puzzled by Dr. Seuss military instructions,
while goaded by Condeskeeza
                   with tweezered hand jobs Viagra cannot save,
and we are called to exalt our president knave,
                         to believe he’s brave,
                            accept he can lead
instead of just desert

 
so we are left
in millennium’s dark dawn
with a leader the sighted see as pawn,
                   who, blind in both eyes
                          would yet claim to be king
                   who cannot rule by thumb
with it locked in sphinctered prison
while running the new Capitol Hill production
as Lord of the Flies

by

jamal
ali

© 12 march 2004