Petition
by Ken Sanes
Pease keep away from our collective door
all the oppositional people who like to fight
and all of the people drawn to the darkness
who end up helping it snuff out the light.
This would include all the human constrictors
who like to pass around gossip and lies –
the secret agents of hate, the sneaks and the spies.
Please keep them all away from our door.
And please keep away all the clever promoters
who offer paradise in a package as a lure
so they can sell us something when we go to the store.
Please tell them we won’t be baited and switched,
and of course we know that nothing they sell
will cause our problems to be miraculously fixed.
So please keep their sales pitch away from our door.
And please keep away all the synthetic foods
made in bubbling beakers to be über-delicious,
healthy in appearance and faux nutritious,
that are filled with high fructose and super-sweet,
cleverly disguised as natural whole wheat.
Please keep this fakery away from our door.
And please keep away from our collective door
all of the celebrities from reality television
who aren’t talented or engaging or even mildly funny,
but who were happy to sign for filthy lucre -- money.
They are living spectacles on the television screen
and, the truth is, they’re like a lot of things we’ve seen:
they’re crazy, they’re angry, they’re seductive, they’re bored --
Hey, lets create a program in which they’re ignored!
And please let me recognize these qualities in me,
through the power of perception and the desire to see.
I may not understand what this broken world is for,
but please keep these things from both sides of my door.