Poetry

Pamela Drew photo

By

Mark Kodama

The Kingdom of Mirth

In the Kingdom of Mirth, everyone did everything backwards.

The motto of the people was

“What is right is wrong and what is wrong is right.

The kingdom is always first.”

After all there is no better way to obtain

The willing cooperation of our friends

Than by forcing them to do what we want.

When I was a child, I would visit the kingdom

Every night in my dreams.

At some point my dreams

Became my reality

And my reality became

My dreams.

In the kingdom, the most incapable

People were promoted

And the most capable people

Were demoted.

The king’s brother Fred

Was the head

Of the Royal Army

And the king’s cousin Davy

Ran the Navy.

When the kingdom lost the war

The king and queen

Celebrated their loss

With a victory parade.

The dead remained unburied

And the living were

Buried alive.

In the kingdom,

The people served the rulers

And if you said something enough

Times it came true.

Meanwhile the rich became richer

And the poor became poorer

Until the rich no longer had anybody

To sell their goods and services.

The rich became fatter and fatter,

Consuming goods faster and faster

Until there was nothing left

And the land was polluted.

Neighbors started to shoot neighbors

So the people demanded more guns

So they could shoot their neighbors

To protect themselves.

Soon, they started to shoot

Their neighbors’ children

So they demanded even

More guns to protect themselves.

The kingdom was famed

For its open policy toward

New immigrants so it built

Walls to protect themselves

Against foreigners and cages to

Imprison their children

To discourage them

From coming.

And everyone blamed everyone else

So anyone who complained

Was beat up or threatened with harm.

If no one complained,

Surely all the kingdom’s

Problems would go away.