Contributor: Patrick Longe

- -
the orators so engaged pause and look above
as the clouds do sound out aloud
in their questions of who thou reigns
and the president rises to defend
cites the character places him under god
that the republic greater than what he faces
and in rhetoric asks who next to play the government
the plantation has the benefit of the doubt
and our grievance is the petition of the future
as the king of nowhere signs on the abeyance
of the promissory note on the dates of chance
give the values do stand here so subjected to ruling
that the magistrate doesn't give a damn for
and in next question to which points to the roofless sky
who the defendant carries no weight on his back
can anyone not take the stand to hear how mistaken
so villagers what millage do thee propose to wager selves
to stand in as lords of the viceroy holds the market square
though wear not the colors of our republic so majestic
and in the language of quotations says missing the emperor's clothes
and the clerics say we could care less about how dress,
the bastards and plump handmaidens in the closet
let the defendant rise if such shame
and the prince and his horseman stride by not unnoticed
says the queen all hail the flag of possibility
for harm must not now come to our liberty the fertile land
whose she asks in prayer who next to play the government
the man tends the livestock of the ages greater than this stage
tax man on the platform says yes for sure paid on time
legislators look upon themselves as rains fall who to justify apathy?
as if thrown into the fray of the swift mud of the barnyard
in the province of the regal so absorbed in some unnatural disturbance
the militia it is whispered have displayed a figurehead of pagan designs
from where the free men ask who next to play the government?


- - -
Worked in marketing, writing creatively, and taking photographs since the 1980s. Previously lifelong resident of southeast Michigan now live in Florida near children.