When charismatic indecency carries the day
There’s not a lot consolation within the historic cult
That claims the dance of misrule at all times prances
At its one frantic ball—looks like endlessly
Till the music stops, the flags come down,
And atypical corruption comes again, refreshed
In laughter. “Hitler has solely acquired one ball.”
Misrule, ha ha. However inform it to the victims:
Hundreds of thousands on the time and tens of millions extra at this time
And everybody ever since, endlessly, a sufferer?
Lengthy-ago bumper sticker, my naive, glib
Coronary heart in the precise place: Resist Authority.
The charismatic indecency that carries
The day this 12 months 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 clean
His ft—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 lady
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
Understanding there by no means was a Colonel Bogey:
“Himmler had one thing related.” Prisoners of conflict
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
All the way down to the altar. The European tribes
Topped for sooner or later a idiot a goat a hen,
To provide the finger to a horned or strutting god.
Typically the blond brutes even ate the hen.
Even the parody of order is all balled up.
And if it has occurred earlier than, all of the much less cause
Or extra to marvel or shrug at no matter charisma
Of darker or dumber indecency carries the day.
This poem seems within the April 2026 print version.
