(for Smiley)

yes let us sacrifice once

again for the rich need

more human sacrifice

but I didn’t make this happen

you say as they haul you

away to cut off your balls

cut out your organs too so

the very rich will never

have to worry about dying

they will want our shit next

for us to collect it and wrap it

FedEx it off and pay the fee

then they will do it all again

more adventures in capitalism

tell us to eat our children

except for the newborn who

make for a very fancy feast

at the tables of glut and greed

and always there will be

a President to tell us about hope

while we are being disemboweled

ripped apart and sucked dry

by those so very very rich now

they do it only for amusement

and a lunatic or two or three

with tastes so bizarre and perverse

to give our sacrifice its meaning

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.