The crowd of others fuzzing around my mind
Like bees of words buzzing,
Like the fast lane of traffic
Now bumper to bumper eyeing each other
Like the supermarket cue,
Eyeing each other and what we buy,
As a friendly word, a welcome among neighbors,
Among Americans and visitors.

You have the power to say so, everyone says.
You bleed money just like the Hacienda,
South of the border where the sun shines all the time.
Bright as prison,
A new idea works its way through the legislature, taut and dry.
The coughing, even a sneeze in the gallery is the people,
The postulates come to bear weight and demonstrate
Fruit and knives and juice.
Of People, we are right to be much afraid.

Time tells a terrible story.
Graft, addons, power couples fighting
Like the stage could be taken back by bear baiting, cock fights and cats on fire.
And they were sore afraid.

Succumb to the numb succubus,
The toes of train travelers severed by accident or trauma,
Collected as Forche’s sack of ears.
Put it on the table,
Obstinacy, lunatics rabid as drunk and
Driving tenfold lambs over the cliff,
By the pen of bison slaughter and
The low moo drone of cattle moving over metal,
On to trucks lit by Klieg, a fleet of air,
A barrage of tweets and snipes, sniffs and offenses,
The balustrade of the balcony smoothed by so many fan’s hands
To make their bids fly higher
As the barb catches the loose leather around the bleating cow, the goat,
The sacrifice, the ravine, the earth works,
What does it matter that we were free once,
And said so, like demagogues, to choose this and
The drenching fate of sunrise, the beach, the rain,
The flood where the storm surge and the pulse of sand eventually settle out
As a new peninsula, a hot spot, a reverie for our glasses
Clinking to our dreams together.

By Rolf Stavig,
2/19/2023