" Statecraft as Stagecraft "...

" Statecraft as Stagecraft "

by Suzán Jiván
Mom & Mom-
Mom Suzán

Statecraft as stagecraft
gladhanding
for private brandings

while schmoozing aspirants
parade past
tin-cup panhandling families
behind black glass

by cabinet candidates
vetting across manicured grasses
facing TV cameras
lit by chandeliers of cut glass

while flirting with litigants
roughly equivalent
to slippery and contradictory
seekers of publicity

endorsing prankster hijinks
with tumultuous themes
deemed subversive
restructurings
of covert
mastery


while publically
impuning
unpredictability
during anonymously
called-in bids

taking a mere ten minutes
to seal the blind deal
becoming admittedly
fond of martinis

summoning
clubby atmospheres
behind quarried blocks
of polished pink marble
tapped as elaborate
pachyderm  habitats...