James B. Nicola
When my phone rings now, I do not reply.
Not having been there, I won’t even try,
for ill-supported answers are as bad
as lies. En masse, they make a movement mad.
You weren’t there either, were you? Then why
answer the question pollsters pose to you
when there were twelve souls, stalwart, tried and true,
who sat and paid attention till they knew?
Those who report these votes of straw may be
as flammable as straw democracy,
its road to ruination paved with good
intentions. Years hence, what descendants should
be saying this midst acrid, bated sighs,
long after the Republic ups and dies?