Boobie Self-Constructed Conundrums
(from Fernando Po, U.S.A., America's post-literate retreat to Plato's Cave)

The Boobies of the U.S.A.
Enjoyed a crazy game
Where those they placed in power could
Ignite a global flame
Yet never have to shoulder one
Iota of the blame.

The game had “rules” that often changed
And “goals” that no one knew,
Except that those who “won” would be
Restricted to the few
Who got to feather their own nests
While others ate shit stew.

The Boobies made up slogans that
No mind could penetrate:
Those silly syllogisms they
Constructed to conflate
Their fabricated fantasies
Of fiction, fraud, and fate.

Confusing their abstractions from
The high down to the low
And every level in between
Gave thought no room to grow,
So “trivial” means just the same
As “vital,” don’t you know?

The fallacy of “is” and “ought”
Did yeoman work, as well,
Convincing Boobies that the bad
Would always work out swell;
Because it should; because we say;
Because ... Oh, what the hell!

We cannot leave because we can’t.
We stay because we can.
We’ve formed the perfect problem that
Confounds the brain of Man:
The very definition of
A fool’s Afghanistan.

We’ve set up the “conditions” such
That all we’ll ever see
Are “questions” undetermined by
Our terminology.
We’ve “no good choices,” so we say,
Which means we’ve no Plan-B.

We stay to make up stories that
The voters will consume
Each time the last fake story dies,
Which leads us to assume
That next we’ll hear a “brand new” lie
Which signals only doom.

We stay because of profits that
Some stockholders require
Who claim they need more tax-cuts or
They won’t “work” and retire.
We stay because of nothing more
Than that we so desire.

We stay for wounded egos that
Cannot admit mistake:
Not while there still remains one chance
To offer “reasons” fake
For what the frauds will sell to us
Or else just simply take.

We will not leave because the ones
Who launched this dreadful fling
Demand more time to demonstrate
Their next great stupid thing:
One more excuse to start again
Instead of finishing.

Since time and blood and money comes
From those who can’t refuse,
This dead-beat free-lunch “warfare” stuff
Has proven great to use
As cover for the long-sought goal
Of “winning” while we lose.

Each year we have a “final” plan,
Unlike the plans before,
Which only – looking back – now seem
Like such a crushing bore:
Stupidity predicting some
Stupidity in store.

We stay because we stay because
We stay because we stay.
We stay because we won’t confront
What made us act this way;
So we can’t leave because we won’t,
And that’s our “final” say.

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright © 2009