Curtain Call

gong sounded a summons

resounding

invocation

remonstration

marching orders

exhortation

exorcism of the ghosts

squashed by the machine

deus ex machina.

are they syncopated sycophants?

statutory statuary

dotting the grassy knoll

they stand ramrod straight

striated fire hydrants

expelling geysers against those

who talk out of school.

no desk standing here –

synchronized solidarity

in beleaguered entreaty

carpe diem! – seize that day

while it still exists.

pigeon hole stool pigeons

deny the reality of that rat

gnawing Achilles while you kick

helpless flailing

scrambling rodents underfoot.

greying of the line between

sanity and madness

encroaches – winter dusk.

they sing a song of sixpence

fill pockets as we die

in techno – technicolor

synthesized and sidelined

screeching vox nihili