Green Glasses
(From The Triumph of Strife: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley)

“Reporters” do the hagiography
Embellishing his empty errant deeds
In tones of abject adoration free

Of any hint of how the kept scribe feeds
On access granted only to the few
Who promise not to scatter any seeds

From which could grow a tree of truth or two
But only idle gas and gossip grow
When well-acquainted wines each other brew

Revealing tidbits we don’t need to know
Concealing crimes for perpetrator friends
Into the public face some smoke they blow

The Nanny Press into the background blends
Their means they sell to justify their ends