Right There by Michael Blake

Ah, to be at that point where I don’t care –
So seldom does it come –
Where I can laugh at even those close,
Saying that the movie doesn’t end like that,
With smiles and kisses for everyone,
That after my obligatory shake of the dice
I’m still out of corporate luck and out on my ass,
And still waving my godless flag
At the so-called spine of the town
The stylishly clad movers and shakers
With their cork pulling toasts to lucrative deals.
Take your suits and quotes for the press
For I’ve got you all down already,
Alas, minor characters in the epic
(Politics always secondary to the real story),
I blow my eighty-proof vision at you
In all my glory in medicated America,
I see all the pills washed down,
The brief fantasies smoked,
The injections into ruined lives,
The drink-blown faces atop lonely barstools,
And I’ve had my eye on that man behind the curtain,
Feeling it my civic duty to expose the wizard
Be he throwing switches in Washington
Or out on the road, dazzling with those pearly whites.
So many “stars” on tour these days
Allowing the public a taste of celebrity,
A buying, starving public - statistics and shaken hands -
Yes, God Bless, and send the check to ….