Chess

 

Inside one Russian doll is another,

dressed in a different nationality

and inside that one is yet another.

 

and so on until all of them

gang up and storm the opera house

demanding to see the mayor.

 

Which of them crossed the border

may depend on fingerprints

and the next referendum.

 

As one nation collapses,

another rises up from the same dolls,

each a pawn in a clever sacrifice.

 

  

Flatliners

 

So now the earth is flat

Since nothing’s truly round

Not even a plutocrat

Rolls without a sound

 

On wildlife habitat

Hydraulic drilling pounds

Skinning mountains flat

Unearthing sacred mounds

 

The Fed’s still keeping track

Of stocks that leap and bound

Payback for any kickback

Their graphs are never round.

 

In jazz clubs singers scat

Audiences spellbound

Because the earth is flat

Keep both feet on the ground

 

by Michael Karl Ritchie

Michael Karl Ritchie is a retired Professor of English from Arkansas Tech University with work published in various small press magazines, including The Mississippi Review, Margie, OR Panthology – Ocellus Reseau. He has had three small press chapbook publications and Winter Goose Press has just published his collection of poems Ampleforth’s Miscellany (2017).

 

 

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