And this one says and that one says and this one says
to the one who says this fact is fact this fact is false
and the movers tik and the shakers tok and the spinners spin
and the liars spout and the liars claim and the listeners listen
and listening repeat what the liars say and the saying goes on
and the said gets said and the dead get dead and the dead
stay dead while the spinners spin and the sayers say and listeners
listen to the chatter over wires when this one says
and that one says and this one says to the one who lies
to the listeners listening as the wireless chatter goes
in and out over time over matter and this one says
and that one says what this one didn’t but got tangled in the matter
and the matter is and the matter isn’t what the chatterers chatter
all the singsong day and livelong night of the chatter
over wires and the wireless chatter that clacks to the clatter
that thrums to the beat of the constant patter that keeps at bay
the matter of the matter that riffs and jives and won’t say
what’s the matter with the liars who lie and the voices that shatter
all the dingdong day and star-tossed night the dreams that come
and dreams that go like raisins in the sun that won’t explode
Tom Cartelli taught literature & film studies for many years at Muhlenberg College and lives in uneasy retirement in far western New Jersey. Recent and forthcoming publications include poems and transcriptions in The Threepenny Review, Möbius, The Antigonish Review, The Field Guide Poetry Magazine, The Avalon Literary Review, TheNewVerseNews, and the online journal Politics/Letters.