The Political Theater
Elected officials execute
multimedia charades, binkies
for constituent sucking
and fodder for uneducated
guesses by conspiracy theorists
who offer dime store outcomes:
Big grown-up donors order
and representatives
hold onto jobs another cycle.
The mirror put to the cynicism
plumbs through 250 years
to the stretched, exhausted ideal
heaving, “help!” to the masses
who reflect on only one person.
The game-show audience,
all loser contestants every time,
interpret in ignorance.
Unaware, the tricked puzzlers
watching, cheer for congressional
pantomimes and pageantry.
Rich Murphy’s latest collections, Elephant by Bass Clef Books, Storage Shed and Inside Stories by Resource Publications and Mind of Europe: A Genealogy to The Fat Man and Susan Constant by Cyberwit were published 2024-2025, following First Aid and Footholds (2023). Asylum Seeker (2018) was published by Press Americana. His first book was The Apple in the Monkey Tree by Codhill Press (2007). His poetry won The Poetry Prize at Press Americana twice for Americana (2013), Th
