makings of a politician

 

come with tricks and
slips and power-trips
let loose from the box of wonders,
the sting of ambition
ringing in your ears:

miseducate and diseducate,

forget how to write and

forget how to right,

mouth what delight! what

delight in the danger

of power, in the power

of danger,

the lonely thrills that

stink of sweat spittle success:

bleach their ears

with ignorance,

boil your words down

into caramelly indulgence,

trick and treat

till they come back for more:

shove down the admission of

waywardness, disprove the truth,

commend it in fact, in fact, in fact:

wonder why you hear screams

as you stand above the

butcher block you call their home,

sharpening knives with a

whetstone of fear, then:

swallow the candy placed

on your tongue before they

can remember they placed

it there.