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

The truth of things has hardly ever known
A less hospitable environment
As overboard the concept they have thrown

Those fools who sail the ship of government
Who see no need of stars by which to steer:
Faint lights in some fantastic firmament

They only heed the howling gales of fear
Which they believe send every course askew
And so they run before the wind they hear

With no one perched aloft to better view
The shoals and reefs that Ocean’s hunger fed
No soundings taken of what no one knew

No knowledge of the ocean bottom’s bed
No sight of the horizon up ahead

We must not lose what no one else would want
We must prevail against what none contest
While cakewalk-conquest carpetbaggers grunt

Beneath the load of each corrupt request
For yet more access to the Treasury
Unguarded and unlocked at their behest

None dare usurp their unctuous usury
As Fearless Leader’s polls begin to slump
Promoted as he is by puffery

More blood and treasure we must proudly pump
Into a mean miasma he would mask
He says GIs must guard his garbage dump

They must "succeed" in his ignoble task
To gild the glory in which he would bask

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright 2006-2010