Poetry of Issue #7        Page 57

GOVERNING WISELY

Breakfast cereal?
Too many options—
a whole excessive aisle full,
shelf upon profligate shelf:

hot, cold, this kind, that kind,
enough different boxes on display
to feed a starving Third World village
for the next six months.

Such glut can make you want to weep,
or collapse in maniacal hilarity
right there on the supermarket floor
and flop around like a suffocating fish.

After I’ve become King of North America
and have received the ermine-trimmed robes,
ruby-studded crown, imperious queen,
randy royal concubines, and bulletproof Bentley,

my first supreme decree will be
to cut the morning menu down to size:
Wheaties, Cheerios, Raisin Bran,
and nothing more,

unless some clearly desperate supplicant
prostrate before the elaborate throne
makes a really compelling case
for our old pals Snap, Crackle, & Pop.

But then I’ll draw the line.

  George J. Searles