Ode to a Conspiracy of Mouse and Cat

“This is a mouse with a tail,” the conspirator said to me.

“No, it’s not … no legs, no paws, no whiskers, wrong color,” I say.

“It doesn’t have to be normal … it runs on extreme ideology.”

“Can’t you see it’s only a dried up leaf with a stem on the floor?”

“No, it’s my dogma in an alternate reality with all the Bigly followers…

No 9/11 attack, no school shootings, no police overkill, no racists;

No masks, no microbes, never losing without blaming the winners.

Who needs rules of laws when we can use force to disrupt civilization,

Use terror as weapons with aims to ‘spill blood’ and ‘shoot in the head.’”

“But my cat is smarter than your dogma … he would never eat that;

You cannot escape reality by invading it to fix your denials and grievances.”

“Too bad, your cat lives in a Deep State and may turn into a socialist.”

“I choose to live in a democratic country with equity and justice for all;

Your desiccated despotism will be scattered to the infamous dustbins of history.”

Annemarie Berukoff