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
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.
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!”
Thanks for the upgrade in accuracy!
Hell of a diatribe putting words together than have not met before.You are in trouble when he sees this.
“Putting together words that have not met before…”
“It’s 15 minutes of fame about to end.” More beautiful words have never been spoken.