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Ars poetica

The meteoric rise in the academic sanctioning of poets since the 1970s has made "ars poetica" one of the things never far from my mind.

Readers and Writers

Readers and writers write and read our way
clear through to the start of the next thing
sent to quake the ground beneath our feet,

Sent to wake us from our nightmare sleep –
sent here to ease us, to please us, and
refresh the dream of the grassroots republic

We designed to push good ideas up
the food chain to the c-suite where
donors meet our Barbies and Kens,

Sent from central casting, who promise
to pull us up to c-suites and landscapes
that overflow with milk and honey.

Writers and readers come together
to flip the script and overturn
the upsidedown cake that keeps

Us awake with nightmare lies
that blame Moses for slavery,
and send Christians to war,

Because donors feed on blood
made to flow by bullets made
and sold in the U.S. of A.

Readers and writers neither
write nor read, now that we
have microsoftened our brains

and allowed Gates, Jobs,
Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, at al.
to steal our thunder and make dollars

Reign the way aristocrats did before
the guillotine made blood flow like
water across the old world desert,

Where all states ruled top down,
and fed king and crony first,
reader and writer last.

Dave Read

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