Maggot In Chief

“Follow your Muse” is the unspoken agreement of any author who has been chosen to be the conduit for private thoughts that at their best, serve a public purpose. No one can predict precisely how they will land with a reader or with whom, but that’s not our business. Just maintain an intuitive faith that something needs to be said and if you don’t say it, no one else will.

 

In the past few days, my Muse has turned me towards the unfathomable chaos of my confused country come face-to-face with centuries of undigested grief and deep shadows. All of it coming to light at once. So any insight that goes beyond name-calling to a deeper understanding of the forces at work is fair game. In that spirit, I ask:

 

“Has anyone noticed how closely MAGAS and MAGGOTS are connected?”

 

If you do, it should send you running to Google to remind yourself as to what exactly a maggot is? But I’ll save you the trouble. Here was the first definition:

 

A maggot is the soft-bodied, legless larva of a fly, a worm-like stage that hatches from eggs and feeds voraciously on decaying organic matter like rotting food, feces, or dead animals, rapidly growing before transforming into a pupa and then an adult fly.

 

So calling the MAGAS maggots is not just an amusing Shakespearian insult, but a scientific description they’ve earned. They have no spine and their heart and brain are negligible. Led by the Chief Maggot of all, they feed voraciously on the shit that he releases into the sewers of his Twitter. They are disgusting creatures that wriggle and worm in the decaying flesh of people killed by ICE, in the moldy, crumbling pages of our Constitution, in the rotting, deteriorating, corroding beams of our Institutions, in the trash heaps of lies and deceit and spin. 

 

And fed by it all, what do they grow into? Flies! Who buzz around our heads and keep feasting on feces and use their whining voices to annoy us at picnics. 

 

The metaphor enters new territory when we consider that in the natural world, these pests actually have a role in the ecological balance. They assist the process of decomposition, releasing new energies into the system that are vital to life and growth. In short, the compost of our waste matter is an essential component of growing food and flowers. 

 

But balance is the key word. When the waste is overwhelming and lines our streets like a New York City garbage strike, and the flies multiply and the rats show up on the scene, there is trouble in paradise. If we can convince the red-hatters that they are on the lowest level of the food chain, secretly stick maggot stickers on their hats and awaken them to the shame they’ve refused, maybe that would help support the balance. And after looking for new names for the unspeakable Head of the Trash Heap, perhaps we might consider:

 

Maggot-in-Chief. 

 

So ends your science lesson of the day. There will be a test.