Sweet emptiness,

Puffy,

Non-nutritive.

Dull.

High calorie air.

We gather to discuss

Nothing

Dressed in our marshmallow suits.

Heads down, gloves on, concentrating on one simple task: counting the individual votes that make up a collective decision. The Governor, Lt. Governor, and Secretary of the Commonwealth of PA all spoke to their duties of receiving votes, protecting votes, counting votes. Beautiful. Peaceful. Government.

The live-cams showed busy people…

Must wash the muck

Away

In this dingy creek that flows

on the way home.

My father —

Shamed —

Works twice as hard

To cover my inheritance.

Wasted.

Promise, promise him labor

As servant not son

To cover some — just some

Of the damage I’ve done.

Who is this

Running this way?

A man,

Shameless,

Exuberant,

Like a silly girl?

The earth hums.

Beneath the din

A guitar strums.

The writer pens

The only story there ever was.

Timbers crack

Capitals crumble

A nation scrambles from the carnage wrought

By a porcine joke

Pretending to be king.

Pleas fail

For he is deaf.

The bearers of his litter

Honor lecherous vows

While the country swoons

False prophets

Mirror with egos all their own

For influence

Splattering pigs’ blood upon altars

Formerly sacred

Let the destroyers pass on

To their deserved scorn

Let the nation recover itself

As a place of welcome,

Of opportunity,

Of service to others

A beacon on earth.

Let the church reconstitute

With a new vision of good news

(Not cable news)

Simple faith

In an unseen edifice

Towering above all that crumbles.