Charades

Preapproved emotions and

attitudes, platitudes hit the

wrong latitude, the saccharine

aftertaste not quite bitter,

just false and wrong, like

a salmon in an elm

or a catfish in a redwood.

Intentional inspiration’s adverse

effect: close scrutiny, an eyeball

pressed into a lens, seeking

flaws, incensed, smoldering,

white sage-smudging, crystal-

gripping oscillation of errors,

misdemeanors across state lines

expanding into federal crimes.

The deejays have been silenced,

kangaroos court frogs,

and the world hops along.