Waiting for a Schmo: Theater of the Absurd!

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence

19 Jan 2022

Waiting for a Schmo:

Theater of the Absurd!

Waiting for a Schmo
Munchkin—or the other—
is Theater of the Absurd!
Myth of Boer swineherd
of coal, gas, oilbird…Absurd!
Who’s Afraid of West Virginia
Wolf in a Brooks Brothers suit
thickening a thin plot: Millions dying?

Two tramps, frontmen for fossil fools and warlords of Wall Street—
Pentagon pimps—stand center stage projecting corporate power.
The two Lilliputian politicians gesticulate wildly as they move stage Right
for months. Ambient sounds include shareholders oinking gleefully.

One protagonist is Ike, the other Mike.One's good cop, the other
bad. One’s forceful, the other deceptive… They continue babbling
in corporate counterpoint. Their bizarre, disconnected dialogue makes
Absolutely no sense to you! You can’t understand a damn thing they’re
saying— or doing… You see strings from their shoulders orchestrating
stage business— Invisible hands of the market are up their asses making
their mouths move! But, you suspend disbelief every two to four years…

More months moving stage right, blabbering bellicose phrases, farting
cellophane threats at no one in particular… You’ve paid hard-earned money
subscribing to schlock! Your high threshold for pain and terrible theater can
only go so far with dismal dialogue:

“Buzzword” “Platitude” “Buzzword” “High fructose corn syrup slogan” “Build back better”
“…get something done…” “Voting rights” “I cannot support…” “working across the aisle”
“…get something done…” “I cannot support…” “60 vote threshold” “Filibuster” “bipartisan buy
in” “…get something done” “freeze Afghan assets” “bipartisan buy-in” “sanction Iran” “masks”
“tests” “masks” “tests” “too expensive” “I cannot support…” “…get something done” “60 vote
threshold” “bipartisan buy-in” “paid sick leave” “medicare for all” “how will we pay for
it?!” “build back better” “dagger at the throat of our democracy” “how will we pay for
it?!”“$768 billion for war” “NATO” “Guantanamo” “Juan Guaidó” “bipartisan buy-in” begging
the question: When will we storm the stage, slinging shoes and shouting “STOP the
performance!!”??

Political Duopoly

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