RHETORICAL VERSE /
SEVEN (software-verifiable) SHAKESPEAREAN-FORM SONNETS
and ONE HAIKU
{ACS.127_01} "ARTICULATE and SMOOTH" Keith won again
{ACS.127_02} "Most Presidential" third time in a row.
{ACS.127_03} (What were the ratings for the other men
{ACS.127_04} and women. Once again, we do not know.)
{ACS.127_05} Keith's prize G.O.P. strategist Rich Bond
{ACS.127_06} highlights Keith's "excellence." Our land's "diverse"
{ACS.127_07} and we need folks like Keith. Bald head not blonde
{ACS.127_08} "Smooth" and "articulate," he can traverse ...
{ACS.127_09} ... a public conversation with no slip
{ACS.127_10} beyond the normal educated view.
{ACS.127_11} Whatever questions raised, won't lose his grip
{ACS.127_12} on "reas'nable." The room concurs: "me, too."
{ACS.127_13} Says Woman-On-The-Street: "Well, yeah," of course
{ACS.127_14} you're diff'rent colored, but the same old horse.
{ACS.128_01} KEITH SAYS its time for leaders who "don't look
{ACS.128_02} like everybody else," which means not white.
{ACS.128_03} But everthing he says goes by the book
{ACS.128_04} the simularly educated write.
{ACS.128_05} HE SAYS what "educated people" think
{ACS.128_06} is what they ought to say when on the spot.
{ACS.128_07} Unwinding sentences that do not kink
{ACS.128_08} when they slip in your head. Not one mal mot.
{ACS.128_09} SO, IS THAT what "most presidential" meant
{ACS.128_10} to 61 percent in their last play,
{ACS.128_11} and 48 (or) 49 percent
{ACS.128_12} in Keene, New Hampshire; Allentown, P.A.?
{ACS.128_13} He's hung around the White House. No surprise
{ACS.128_14} he's "smooth" as all the other West Wing guys.
{ACS.129_01} IN CONTRAST, as Keith says, there's Joyce and Mack
{ACS.129_02} who "say a little bit more than they should."
{ACS.129_03} When they get on a roll, they sometimes stack
{ACS.129_04} their phrases in "the other" neighborhood:
{ACS.129_05} A place where the "right educated" leap
{ACS.129_06} to quick conclusions: you are "not their kind."
{ACS.129_07} Just one wrong pile. The price is pretty steep.
{ACS.129_08} The house of all your cards has been red-lined.
{ACS.129_09} Just one misstep and you have been dismissed.
{ACS.129_10} AND NOTHING that you say can change your state
{ACS.129_11} from negative to positive. You've missed
{ACS.129_12} your opportunity. And so your fate ...
{ACS.129_13} ... is living with the way they have you pegged.
{ACS.129_14} You can't unsay it even if you begged.
{ACS.130_01} REPUBLICANS, of course, don't seem to care
{ACS.130_02} as much as Democrats about a gaff.
{ACS.130_03} If Dubya screws up badly, they just dare
{ACS.130_04} "unpatriotic" "liberals" to laugh.
{ACS.130_05} Their lingo's tribal loyalty, not sense.
{ACS.130_06} Like Hitler, pandering to pride and fear.
{ACS.130_07} Key strategist Karl Rove's intelligence
{ACS.130_08} is simlar to Hitlers. Both sincere ...
{ACS.130_09} ... in their belief that their ideas must win
{ACS.130_10} "by any means" required. Bullshit and lies
{ACS.130_11} as necessary. masters of the spin
{ACS.130_12} that fits the minds of many, so they rise.
{ACS.130_13} Could Boykin's lib'ral ,"Well-yeah" speech defeat
{ACS.130_14} the bullshit that Republicans repeat?
{ACS.131_01} NEXT WEEK they'll do what should have been done first.
{ACS.131_02} Use dial-groups (thumbslides) to let voters voice
{ACS.131_03} agreement/disagreement, blessed or cursed.
{ACS.131_04} Display clear measurements of ev'ry choice ...
{ACS.131_05} of phrase and tone by ev'ry candidate.
{ACS.131_06} They should have used this method to choose who
{ACS.131_07} was cast -- before they held the first debate.
{ACS.131_08} Before the other things they ran them through.
{ACS.131_09} What did vote totals measure in week one?
{ACS.131_10} Where did most votes come from weeks two and three?
{ACS.131_11} What things exactly had front-runners done?
{ACS.131_12} SO VERY LITTLE OF THE GAME WE SEE.
{ACS.131_13} IMAGINE IF all candidates had passed
{ACS.131_14} this test of competence before they're cast.
{ACS.132_01} Keith Boykin may be King of this odd bunch
{ACS.132_02} of characters selected by their type
{ACS.132_03} within a matrix baseed upon a hunch
{ACS.132_04} of RJ Cutler laying down a stripe ...
{ACS.132_05} ... to mark a road that he knew how to drive.
{ACS.132_06} But his map could not reach the place described
{ACS.132_07} in the Am-Can brochure. No one alive
{ACS.132_08} could pull that promise off. Though I've prescribed ...
{ACS.132_09} ... one main idea that should have paved the way.
{ACS.132_10} Across the nation, people should have ruled
{ACS.132_11} the casting process. But they had no say.
{ACS.132_12} The Cutler bullshit has nobody fooled.
{ACS.132_13} The cast was cast to fit what they could plan.
{ACS.132_14} That's "just a show." IT'S NOT THE REAL AM-CAN.
{ACS.133_01} THE BUNNIES OF THE REVOLUTION dream
{ACS.133_02} of possibilities that might yet come
{ACS.133_03} if they pulled off some perfect Bunny scheme.
{ACS.133_04} Though fast asleep the smallest beats a drum ...
{ACS.133_05} It echoes off the mountain up to God
{ACS.133_06} who wakes up from a dream where Bunnies found
{ACS.133_07} "the answer" to "the problem." With one nod
{ACS.133_08} the Necessary Angel bends the sound ...
{ACS.133_09} ... of Little Bunny drumming to transmit
{ACS.133_10} a special coded message down to BOKE
{ACS.133_11} who at this moment's trying hard to fit
{ACS.133_12} one more iambic line and one more joke ...
{ACS.133_13} ... in one more set of sonnets for today.
{ACS.133_14} BOKE smiles at what he's heard. Alright. Let's play!
# # #