Back to Shirk

by Cliff Lake

The underachievers
File back into the chamber
Having successfully survived
Their vacations.
Nothing is expected of them,
Save performances,
Meant to appeal
To the lowest common denominator.
They won’t have to go far,
A few steps up,
And they’re in 
Familiar territory.

The underachievers
Assemble their notes,
Written by them personally,
And not to be confused,
With the fake phone numbers,
They have collected,
From the dancers
On the bar napkins
That still smell of
Whiskey and
Cocaine-scented sweat.

The underachievers
Point fingers and rhetoric everywhere
But at real issues,
Substituting likes
For engagement,
And words
For action,
Believing earnestly
That doing something
That someone might dislike,
May not lead
To increased photo ops.

The underachievers
File back into the chamber
With no plans for action,
But plenty of plans
For acting
Because outrage
Makes for good video.
The underachievers
Know who and what they are…
And they keep collecting their pay.

Let’s fire them in ’24.

Cliff Lake 11/26/2023
Copyright © Clifford Lake 2023