What We Want to Hear

By Michael Stolt

What We Want to Hear

Politicians aren’t able to

Tell the truth

Because we aren’t able

To accept it.

We want to hear that all

Is going to be ok; our jobs

Secure, our lives safe.

No one can guarantee

That, not even ourselves.

We have made the politicians

What they are, and if they

Are not what we want,

Whom can we blame but

Ourselves; so when they

stand up there telling us

what they think we want

to hear, we know It a lie

perpetuated by our need for it.

What the politicians want

To say is, “The economy

Is shot to hell. Hell is

Visiting us here and now.”

What the politicians want

To say, is “It will get

better, not now, but in

A long while.” but “there

Is no quick fix, be patient

In your pain.” They are silent

In telling us what they want

To say. We hear only, our own

Lies retold. They, hoping for the

Vote, retell them. We, seemingly

Hearing them for the first time,

Revolt and withhold from them, our vote.