Week 4/Day 4. The Rotten (a poem)

This is my fourth poem of week four of the online retreat.

Anymore, the subject believes
his own press

and assumes his once radical stance
justifies the new orthodoxy

The rotted past meets
the rotting present
the rotten join hands and breathe deep

Plastic cups litter the grounds
a puddle of purple forms
beneath the dispenser

The shock of red
identifies the perpetrator

T-shirts pledge allegiance
Flowers of romance crisp and crumble

The news reports every word

The legend echoes
the legend in his own mind
to the usual cheers and jeers
from the usual names
on their usual sides

The news repeats every word

Now the public image
is rotten

Legends are dangerous

(29 October 2020)

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