first a festival of gestures
and some time to genuflect
to a higher hierophant
as if anyone still puts stock
in stick figures
unlikely ever to leaf out
unlikeable to lichen
too glossy for moss
untender as tinder
but sticks in the mud are needed
to feed the smoke machine
and please a little siezer
some might be ham-
fingered fecklusters
while others must be utter
butter-fisted tooltips
but all stick to their figures
and abandon their posts
on highway signage
and warning lables
who will coddle the muddle-
headed now
their everyman act puts actual
everypeople to shame
the deep state’s
deepest fakes
their winter of discontent
comes with the best
most luxurious fireplaces
till ashes ashes
and an insurgent May
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