Poetry

pixabay photo

 

By

Ben White

 

 

 

The Zombie Party

 

 

I

 

 

The Ambassador says

The violence wasn’t caused

By her president’s actions,

But she left

The council floor before

The opposition could speak,

So maybe she missed the facts

And the attacks between perspectives

Were only a collective result

Of frustration

And just enough

Tipping-point desperation

For the poor to throw rocks

At the well-funded

And better-equipped forces

That showed restraint

By only killing

Sixty people

 

And maybe it’s only

An anecdotal footnote,

But this is why dead people vote.

 

 

 

 

II

 

 

The lawyers are fixers

And cocktail mixers telling

Stories to gain attention

Though the events unmentioned

Hold the sequential episodes

That unfold to show

Where the money went

When it was spent on secrets

And infidelity’s fear

Caught in the sphere of politics

Wanting to be fixed

To protect investments

And promote the strength

Of egos at length to ensure

Fame is secure and entertaining

While sustaining a sense

Of privilege condensed

In financial opportunities,

 

And perhaps it’s conditioned

As a constant need to gloat,

But this is why dead people vote.

 

 

 

 

III

 

 

When the people are represented

By an identifiable need

They’ll let emotion

Shuffle the leaves and read

A future they think includes them

As a false way to soothe them

Into a lullaby of rhetoric

Not letting critical thinking

Interrupt the dream of a dream

Even as extreme fantasies

Undermine the direction

They think they’ve taken

So mistaken, yet too full

Of pride to do any

Thing other than hide

Themselves behind perpetuated

Spirals racing downward

With traitors and cowards

 

Leaking the promises

That transparency won’t,

And this is why dead people vote.

 

 

 

 

IV

 

 

The briefings must say his name

To maintain his interest

In the information otherwise

Distracted by a sensation

Enacted by friendlies

Being televised disguised as news

With a point of view

That validates his comparison

With the greats who’ve gone before

As the glory of war appeals

To how it feels to be

And be entitled based

On false data presented

With Iron Cross gratitude

And praise offered in ways

Around the table from Secretaries

Who oppose the adversaries

Working for the evil papers

 

Knowing no-one ever read

What no-one ever wrote

Though this is why dead people vote.

 

 

 

 

V

 

 

Evangelical humanity

And the principles of Christianity

Have been deregulated

For the sake of a righteous belief

That the grief of others

Should be tortured and lynched

In an orchard where

Their despair holds no apples

On any trees of knowledge

With the intellectual leaves

Required to provide shelter and shade

For those betrayed by the concepts

Of superiority that get treated

As a false god to be torch-

Heated by apostles ready to claim

That which does not belong

To anyone if not everyone –

 

There are no humane reasons

For a person to self-promote,

And that is why dead people vote.

 

 

 

 

 

Ben White

Author of the books, Buddha Bastinado Blues and The Kill Gene, Ben White thought he was a poet, only to find out he is not a poet at all. He is a witness. What he writes is testimony.