Let Them Have Bread And A Circus
This is a poem
about the modern day Rome
I see on the T.V. talk shows.
As the warriors prepare
I smell the bloodlust
in the atmosphere of the auditorium—
and the worst of slobbering secrets
are dragged out on parade
for the barbarians.
The lions in the crowd
are very proud indeed
to live in this democracy
of the lowest, common denominator.
Where you are free to choose
from a thousand different shampoos—
and express your views
in a platitude to Caesar.
And I forget how often I’ve heard,
from some reactionary patrician
who has never even
read a word of Karl Marx,
blabber on for no good reason
how “socialism looks good,
but only works on paper.”
And they say this with a straight face,
while wearing capitalist clothing
manufactured using child labor
from overseas.
And so as we deeply debate
the latest sexual transgression
of this or that celebrity—
we think ourselves participants
in the plurality of voices.
But in this Empire of two false choices,
every pundit who cares to confess
is entitled to their opinion.
I will not say the right
to free speech
is anything less
than wonderful.
But the common sense
of these too common people
just leaves me uncommonly
uncomfortable.
(Blue Collar Review, Spring 2008).
