A Bargain with Belief

Prices,

falling beneath autumn’s crisp

gold and red leaves—

which, of course,

Madelyn can’t see.

“Trust the plan,”

conservative voices insist,

promising brighter days

beyond this misery.

They never say when—

never mention they’re paid

to post PR for Republicans.

Madelyn heard it on Fox News—

it must be true, right?

She visits a local market,

crowded with people

for a sale that, last autumn,

was simply the price.

Critical thinking is in crisis,

skills stolen, replaced

by aluminum hats and rigid spines—

Madelyn won’t soon regret it.

Madelyn shifted items

but could find no sales.

I mean—the man in the Oval Office

said it—it must be true.

The man who resides in the office said so.

He lies at the Resolute Desk—

truth and fiction blending

with every moving lip,

every long pause,

every bead of sweat.

Madelyn picks up a bottle of wine,

the price drops ten cents.

On a TV, construction workers

build a ballroom,

while a campaign for the forgotten man

became a grift, a heist.

All Madelyn wants is to live.

She sets down the wine,

leaves the store with one goal:

to trust in God—

not a thrice-married, unrepentant felon.

By Andy Cooper

From: United States

X: AC0040