When charismatic indecency carries the day
There’s not a lot consolation within the historical cult
That claims the dance of misrule at all times prances
At its one frantic ball—looks as if ceaselessly
Till the music stops, the flags come down,
And odd corruption comes again, refreshed
In laughter. “Hitler has solely acquired one ball.”
Misrule, ha ha. However inform it to the victims:
Tens of millions on the time and thousands and thousands extra immediately
And everybody ever since, ceaselessly, a sufferer?
Lengthy-ago bumper sticker, my naive, glib
Coronary heart in the suitable place: Resist Authority.
The charismatic indecency that carries
The day this yr this time isn’t the antic
Indecency of Harpo with scissors to snip
My necktie if I’m Simon the Pharisee
Who invited Jesus to supper, when Jesus favored
The sinner who introduced costly fragrance to scrub
His toes—and Simon puzzled, was it correct?
Excuse the prig, bless Harpo, bless the sinner.
God is aware of what’s in our nature, she used her hair.
He squeezed a horn and chased a squealing girl
Throughout the film set. We laughed. The horse
On the feast of Saturn rode the grasp’s again.
Bless the nameless indecent Carnival lyrics
To the “Colonel Bogey March,” and all the higher
Realizing there by no means was a Colonel Bogey:
“Himmler had one thing comparable.” Prisoners of struggle
Whistle the tune in Bridge on the River Kwai,
“And Goebbels had no balls in any respect,” however no—No,
This time, the very opposites themselves
Reverse the cult of misrule itself undone
Right down to the altar. The European tribes
Topped for someday a idiot a goat a rooster,
To offer the finger to a horned or strutting god.
Generally the blond brutes even ate the rooster.
Even the parody of order is all balled up.
And if it has occurred earlier than, all of the much less purpose
Or extra to surprise or shrug at no matter charisma
Of darker or dumber indecency carries the day.
This poem seems within the April 2026 print version.
