The Chauffeur

[David Nelson Bradsher]

A man delivers one inspiring speech
after another, and the nation's keys
are fished from pockets, tossed and, near his reach,
they hang and jangle in a shifting breeze.

Election Day: new driver takes the wheel.
One passenger becomes the State Chauffeur.
Peeling away from curbs, the tires squeal,
and he accelerates. The engine’s purr

goes to a jackal's chatter, harsh, intense.
The car careens off course and plows afield,
then crashes through an old, forbidding fence
that was, by time (and purpose), long concealed.

This path is new: a thicket, overgrown;
a mass admittance to the wild unknown.

[mfwilkie]

D,

Pretty speeches can mask a lack of experience.
Kind of reminds me of the mass hysteria panty-tossing afforded Tom Jones.

Couldn't understand the lemming-behavior then, and you'd think after being fooled by a bushy puppet, not once, but twice, we'd learn that we need to look much deeper than
a new round of store-bought cliché for a leader.

Thanks for turning our conversation into a poem, D.

Mags

[David Nelson Bradsher]

Thank you, Mags.

[Sherry Thrasher]

Hello, D-Ber.

It really is amazing how you do this rhyme thing You make it look so easy to those of us who stumble through. Much enjoyed (especially stanza one.)

Sorry about Saturday...an MRI on Wednesday will tell all. Call me.

Sherry

[LeoVictorBriones (poetremains)]

Mags, I think you're in trouble...first the Celts lose Garnett...then the Pats lose...and now??? Happy Super Tuesday!

[Jonathan Morey Weiss-Namaste47]

Nice, David..very nice extended metaphor.
In S2L4, unless I misunderstood, would "once" instead of "one" make this thought clearer?e.g.

"Once passenger, now he's the State Chauffer."

[David Nelson Bradsher]

Thank you Sherry, Leo and Jon.

Jon, I used the "one" there to signify that there can only be one driver, so to speak. A little simplistic maybe. Thank you.

David