The Death of Democracy

Not one thing alone will get us through this. Not outrage, not humor, not art, poetry and music. Not marches, not letter writing and phone calls and e-mail and petitions, not collective action, not collective education. But "all of the above" is a good start.

And so poetry should have its place at the table of Resistance. Looking through Garrison Keillor’s timely collection Good Poems for Hard Times, I found this gem. Imagine Democracy is the "item" and new light shines through the truth of this whimsical poem.

       In Answer to Your Query

                                                  Naomi Lazard

We are sorry to inform you

the item you ordered

is no longer being produced.

It has not gone out of style

nor have people lost interest in it.

In fact, it has become

one of our most desired products.

Its popularity is still growing.

Orders for it come in

at an ever increasing rate.

However, a top-level decision

has caused this product

to be discontinued forever.

Instead of the item you ordered

we are sending you something else.

It is not the same thing,

nor is it a reasonable facsimile.

It is what we have in stock,

the very best we can offer.

If you are not happy

with this substitution

Let us know as soon as possible.

                        As you can imagine

we already have quite an accumulation

of letters such as the one

you may or may not write.

To be totally fair

We respond to these complaints

as they come in.

Yours will be filed accordingly,

answered in its turn.