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San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

The Third Conning | National Poetry Month

April 11, 2018 by Bob Dorn

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Third

By Bob Dorn

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,  …
William Butler Yeats “Second Coming“

THE THIRD CONNING

Turning and turning over malls and freeways
The drones outrace their wireless signals;
Houses fall apart; grocery carts are filled with gear;
Mere starvation is loosed on half the world,
While others eat designer foods and
Protest they’re entitled to deny the real.
The best lack spirit, while the worst fill our
Heads with methed-up commentary.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
The Third faux Conning of the land.

The Third! After Ronald’s and Richard’s,
Now it’s Donald’s turn to hail family values
By plumping the sales of his hotel suites
And hawking his only daughter’s bags
He uses Twitter to second guess his god;
Himself, he’s the Lizard of Oz
And hopes to move the Spiritus Mundi,
To a Golf Course here, a tower there.

Somewhere else he’s a swinish shape
With the head of a grapefruit and a gaze of disdain
At those he’s neutralized or stunned to inaction.
His swollen thighs move past his bloated belly
While all about him wheel his human drones
Forced to lie, and then deny
The darkness of power we see more clearly.
Now that Richard is Ronald and Ronald Donald,
A half century later I think I know
What coarse beast slouches toward us
Its 15 minutes of fame about to end.

Editor Note:  The Third Conning was originally published on February 14, 2017

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Bob Dorn

Bob Dorn

Bob Dorn was an Evening Tribune staff writer and left the paper, becoming the local stringer for The New York Times and San Jose Mercury News and writing for The Reader and San Diego Magazine. He taught writing for some 12 years in UCSD's Literature Department writing program. Bob garnered a Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego chapter, 2016 Journalism Award.
Bob Dorn

Latest posts by Bob Dorn (see all)

  • The Old Man and the City - December 5, 2018
  • The Ups and The Downs | My Reporter’s Life, Part Three - October 17, 2018
  • Some Big Developments | My Reporter’s Life, Part Two - October 16, 2018

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Filed Under: Books & Poetry, Culture, Politics

About Bob Dorn

Bob Dorn was an Evening Tribune staff writer and left the paper, becoming the local stringer for The New York Times and San Jose Mercury News and writing for The Reader and San Diego Magazine. He taught writing for some 12 years in UCSD's Literature Department writing program. Bob garnered a Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego chapter, 2016 Journalism Award.

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Comments

  1. John Lawrence says

    February 13, 2017 at 10:25 am

    Trump is a dead ringer for Auric Goldfinger of James Bond movie fame. The film featured Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus. How appropriate! I think this is the film where Goldfinger has Bond strapped to a table, legs spread with a table saw whirring towards his private parts. Bond says something like, “What do you want me to do now?” and Goldfinger replies, “No, Mr. Bond, I want you to die.”

    I’m waiting for the SNL skit.

    • thoughtfulbear says

      February 13, 2017 at 5:34 pm

      Still just about the best Bond film! (Believe we’d now call that a laser, BTW…)

      “You expect me to talk?”

      “No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!”

      • John Lawrence says

        February 14, 2017 at 7:43 am

        Thanks for the upgrade in accuracy!

  2. Jim Bliesner says

    February 13, 2017 at 5:18 pm

    Hell of a diatribe putting words together than have not met before.You are in trouble when he sees this.

    • bob dorn says

      February 14, 2017 at 8:14 am

      “Putting together words that have not met before…”

  3. Ernie McCray says

    February 14, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    “It’s 15 minutes of fame about to end.” More beautiful words have never been spoken.

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