Sunday, August 07, 2016

What's At Stake...

—Anonymous Photo



THE ONLY THING AT STAKE IS EVERYTHING
—David Wright, Sacramento, CA

So I'm in Bel Air and see a
Sacramento Magazine headline that says
Six local "notables" (have taken their precious time to)
Share their ideas about Summer Time activities in Sacramento.
I flip through it and learn that one is a
Vice President of Marketing at the
A-Plus Widget Corporation, and another is a
Business Professor at Widget U.  There's four others of the same ilk.
And I'm not sure why I'm supposed to give a shit what they say, any more than what the
Grocery checker might say.
And in reading the suggestions of our "notables",
Clearly one would want to roll the dice and ask the checker!
And I'm thinking if the magazine offered me a place as a
"Notable", I'd tell them where to shove it.
WTF!  How can people accept such absurdity.
To the "notables”: how can you accept the term applied to you?

Now in truth these are not big-timers by any means, and in fairness to
Local "notables" it's much worse with the major stars.
They march right along in step.
When, for example, I see some headline like
"Jennifer Stuns in Two-Piece!"
(If I slapped a bikini on my 300+ male frame, there would be even more
"Stunned" beachgoers.)
Why don't people like her speak out against such idiocy?
And with Jennifer A., she can't really be a complete airhead, not with how she
Played her role in "Office Space". 
It's a betrayal!
I'm not sure what card needs taking away, but I'd
Like to take her card away!
Some cards you can carry if you have some semblance of dignity,
Some semblance of integrity.
You cannot carry it if you're a shameless sellout.

And why is she doing commercials?
How much money is enough for her?
Back in the day, big stars had some class.
Second-raters like Ronald Reagan did commercials, sure, but
Big stars never!
And in the sixties and seventies (pre-disco),
To make a cosmetics ad would draw our scorn.
I mean, what crap it is:
Look at how very happy and proud she is, with her clean "pure" skin!
What justice in the fact her "pure" skin is crawling with
Bacteria just like the rest of us.
How low can they go?

They go even lower these days,
Such as talented surgeons who could
SAVE LIVES but instead star on TV doing
Boob jobs on 16-yr-olds!
I bet they all have that pathetic poster with the
Luxury cars and the proclamation:
"Justification for a higher education."
So sad.  Sickening.  Years of education for a mentality like that!

And if you haven't noticed, the
Canaries are dying!
Warnings are sounding.
It might be true that America, in being young, has always been too shallow, we
Can almost say it's part of her charm, but
No population in American history would promote an ignoramus like
Donald Trump to be a major party nominee, to get this
Horrifically close to the White House.
We need to declare a state of emergency!
It is time to put down your "devices" and instead read.
Instead of packed theaters of adults watching cartoon movies, let's have
Packed playhouses of adults watching meaningful and great plays.
It is high time to obsess less about your abs and more about your mind.

For a century, scholars and artists have warned us, like mine canaries, about
Becoming what we have now become.
At first we listened, but not well enough.
Then, just a few decades ago we began to ignore them altogether.

If we don't dodge the threat of Trump, it's too late.
Hell, maybe it is too late.
If we do dodge this threat, we have so much to do, because
Others like him will be popping up if we let them.
This world's never been short of narcissistic shysters.
We must retool, we must
Rise again to a level where we can't be taken like this again.
The only thing at stake is everything.

________________________

Our thanks to Sacramento’s David Wright for his thoughts today! David writes that he’s “not really much of a political animal, but this year is something else…”, and it’s true that Medusa is receiving more of such work this year; our collective dander seems to be up even higher than usual.
Differentiating between a rant and a poem is, of course, difficult and highly subjective; for that reason, Medusa adheres to her “open mic” policy, hoping readers will take such opportunities to think and respond in their own fashions. (For Poetry Foundation’s wonderful collection of poems, articles and thoughts on political poetry in our society, go to www.poetryfoundation.org/features/articles/detail/69857)

And happy birthday today to Sacramento’s Joyce Odam!

—Medusa




 Celebrate poetry today by heading over to 
Avid Reader at Tower and Broadway in Sacramento 
to hear Lytton Bell and Cynthia Linville read 
 (and legislate the world!) at 2pm.