by Mary Saracino
On the street where the lobbyists live,
the money-hungry grab
a breakfast of political clout
and belly up to the table. They laden
their Special K with pork-barrel fat,
pour on greed — the whole-cream version,
not the wimpy 1% — sprinkle on
a heaping spoonful of cronyism
and savor every morsel of sugary nepotism.
Corruption rots their teeth;
spilled milk soils their hands,
but still they fish through the box,
the pilfered prize clinging
to their sticky fingers.
A promise puddles the milky dregs: when you
pay to play, you get to lick the bowl.
Mary Saracino is a novelist, memoir writer, and poet who lives in Denver, CO. Her newest novel, The Singing of Swans, is to be published by Pearlsong Press in the fall of 2006.