A/K/A a simulated enema -- sometimes you just have to get this crap out {smile}
RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU
{ACS.042_01} "ELECTIONS ARE NO TIME TO EDUCATE"
{ACS.042_02} (said someone, though I can't remember who).
{ACS.042_03} The only issue candidates debate
{ACS.042_04} is which is closer to "the average true."
{ACS.042_05} TO EDUCATE would mean that minds would change,
{ACS.042_06} but voters are not sitting in your class.
{ACS.042_07} A teacher can say things which first sounds strange,
{ACS.042_08} then make you understand -- or whip you ass.
{ACS.042_09} But voters wield the paddle in this case.
{ACS.042_10} If you say something they don't understand,
{ACS.042_11} or something they don't like -- Out of the race
{ACS.042_12} your sorry ass will go. Strike up the band ...
{ACS.042_13} ... and play a tune they know the dance steps for.
{ACS.042_14} Can't teach a new one. (Ouch, my ass is sore.)
{ACS.043_01} GOOD TEACHERS sometimes raise the question "why?"
{ACS.043_02} Why this or that is done a certain way?
{ACS.043_03} But expert politicians never try
{ACS.043_04} to cause someone to question a cliche.
{ACS.043_05} To educate a grownup means OFFEND
{ACS.043_06} the habits of their mind, and there's no time
{ACS.043_07} for explanations long enough to mend
{ACS.043_08} the damage. Turn their anger to sublime ...
{ACS.043_09} ... enlightenment. Convert their view to yours.
{ACS.043_10} Too bad there's not a two-by-four that long.
{ACS.043_11} A good clang on the noggin sometimes cures
{ACS.043_12} a lot of foolishness. (I love that "BONG!")
{ACS.043_13} Yeah, ring the nation's noggins with a stick.
{ACS.043_14} The only way to change their minds right quick.
{ACS.044_01} Perhaps you see why we are bored to death
{ACS.044_02} by politicians who have little choice
{ACS.044_03} (they think) then use their money, ev'ry breath
{ACS.044_04} to transmit platitudes. They cannot voice ...
{ACS.044_05} ... what many folks would want to hear them say.
{ACS.044_06} The danger if they don't quite say it right
{ACS.044_07} and someone is offended, that today
{ACS.044_08} would vote for you, but then you picked a fight ...
{ACS.044_09} ... with something they believe, but you can't bap
{ACS.044_10} them on the head and teach them to believe
{ACS.044_11} that you are right instead of all that crap
{ACS.044_12} that Satan transmits daily to deceive.
{ACS.044_13} God says that two-by-four joke's run its course.
{ACS.044_14} It's better words, not wood, that must have force.
{ACS.045_01} "But, God," I say, "the nation's too far gone
{ACS.045_02} for any words to resurrect its soul
{ACS.045_03} If half the nation, even now, is drawn
{ACS.045_04} to vote for Bush, how could it be the goal ...
{ACS.045_05} ... of anyone to want to lead this pile
{ACS.045_06} of bullshiteaters who want more to eat?
{ACS.045_07} To not offend them would take far more guile
{ACS.045_08} than anyone with honor would repeat.
{ACS.045_09} Repeating bullshit is the devil's work
{ACS.045_10} He's making sure the baseline is so low
{ACS.045_11} no one could lift us from it. Clean and jerk
{ACS.045_12} us back up to the benchmark that we know ...
{ACS.045_13} ... the USA should set for all the world.
{ACS.045_14} Can that much weight in bullshit still be curled."
{ACS.046_01} THE BOUND'RIES of "the real" are Kerry's box
{ACS.046_02} (I won't be checking when November comes).
{ACS.046_03} The blue-team pragmatists who know that Fox
{ACS.046_04} shows "lying liars" sucking on their thumbs ...
{ACS.046_05} ... don't have the umph to balance out this mess.
{ACS.046_06} Incompetent to speak, they compromised
{ACS.046_07} the nation into hell. There won't be less
{ACS.046_08} troops in Iraq if Kerry is baptized ...
{ACS.046_09} ... as president -- he said that he'll send more.
{ACS.046_10} To do what, Mr. Kerry? You don't know.
{ACS.046_11} You're twid'ling swing-state votes to barely score
{ACS.046_12} a victory against an evil foe.
{ACS.046_13} THE MEDIA has boxed us to this choice.
{ACS.046_14} Then yell that we should vote, or lose our voice.
{ACS.047_01} MY CHOICE is NO. Not either. Fuck them both.
{ACS.047_02} FUCK YOU, the God-damned media who framed
{ACS.047_03} this bullshit as democracy. My oath --
{ACS.047_04} in all its vulgar glory -- is I've blamed ...
{ACS.047_05} ... this horror movie on each ivy twit
{ACS.047_06} who lacks the education that they claim
{ACS.047_07} to merit the authority to shit
{ACS.047_08} their worthless "definitions" in the name ...
{ACS.047_09} ... of institutions which have let us down.
{ACS.047_10} THE MERITOCRACY's incompetence
{ACS.047_11} let Dubya Bush's BULLSHIT wear the crown.
{ACS.047_12} THEIR EDUCATION stretched that shit to sense.
{ACS.047_13} The senior thesis (Harvard, Princeton, Yale?)
{ACS.047_14} is talking with your head stuck up your tail.
{ACS.048_01} WHEN I'WA WRITERS WORKSHOP started out
{ACS.048_02} the purpose was to learn to write in verse.
{ACS.048_03} Now silly prose is all those f*ckers shout
{ACS.048_04} about. And all the fruitcakes there immerse ...
{ACS.048_05} ... themselves in stringing sentences along
{ACS.048_06} the same ol' modern paths that lead to what?
{ACS.048_07} Quit writing stories, "kids," and write a song
{ACS.048_08} of something that shows what your soul has got.
{ACS.048_09} I'm picking on your workshop just to fill
{ACS.048_10} this final quatrain up, and you are there
{ACS.048_11} embedded in our culture revved to kill
{ACS.048_12} all anger with bombs falling through the air ...
{ACS.048_13} ... and nothing that your graduates will write
{ACS.048_14} will help the situation -- Not one mite.
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