Unlike so many pundits
Who pop up on your TVs
I claim to be no expert
Where I have no expertise
No one asks my counsel
Or even sends a query
To elicit my opinion
On some new strategic theory
I’ve never had to order
An advance or a retreat
Never marched to victory
Or suffered a defeat
But if I planned this mission
Instead of writing verse
I may not have done better
But I could not have done worse
Of all our strangled notions
The one that’s twisted tightest
Is that those who run the country
Are the best minds and the brightest
Those who make decisions
The State folks and the Feds
Daily, show the country that
They’re in above their heads
And what is most appalling
As they march us straight to hell
Is the smug presupposition
That they think they’re doing swell
My father always told me
And he said it rather clearly
If you make a mess of things
Apologize sincerely
When you bear the burden
And there is no saving face
Accept the consequences
And exit with some grace
But given who we’re dealing with
(And as this poem is summing)
I think I’m right in saying that
I just don’t see that coming
