“You’re a democrat” they say in their bare attempt
to conceal their cocksure absolute knowledge that
they are the astute keyholders of final redemption
saucy tossing your belief back in the full boiling vat

That burbles bubbles of this rare toxic political stew
that drowns out every possible murmuring recourse
to the way we attempt to construct our personal brew
of Current Age post modern anti-imperialist discourse

It’s this constant roiling contagion of meany bullying
the preset trigger trap of the basic frail human dual
nature of everything that takes a major in base lying
language itself turning us all into self deceiving fools

Who go about our only common social space shrieking
and dinking and slinking to remain ever oh, so, careful
because you might be a ‘democrat’ if you keep thinking
you must be a ‘republican’ with your mind grind on null

Oh, it’s much worse than the boring multiple choice tests
they cancel out your brain and put our minds to final rest.

 

James Van Looy has been a fixture in Boston’s poetry venues since the 1970s. He is a member of Cosmic Spelunker Theater and has run poetry workshops for Boston area homeless people at Pine Street Inn and St. Francis House since 1992. Van Looy leads the Labyrinth Creative Movement Workshop, which his Labyrinth titled poems are based on. His work appears weekly in Oddball Magazine.