The Sassoon Collection
ix. Fight to our Finish
The bums came back. Pundits played and bites were flying.
The yearning journalists threshed the backlit words
To trash the warring brutes who’d refrained from agreeing
And hear the shuffled music of fizzled-out accords.
Of all the waste and nonsense they have brought
This moment is the lowest. (So we thought.)
Thumbing their noses to spite the other aisle
Shunning those that broke ranks with thoughts of a deal,
Making all attempts at representing utterly futile.
* * * * * *
I heard the yammering journalists grunt and squeal;
And with their trusting viewers turned and went
To rid us all of those who brazenly overspent.
— Zumwalt (2011)
For the entire set, please visit: https://zumpoems.com/2012/02/29/the-sassoon-collection/
Admin’s note: In this ninth of a series of poems based on Siegfried Sassoon’s works, “Fight to our Finish,” maps the senselessness of trench warfare onto modern partisan politics. The poem explicitly critiques political gridlock (“warring brutes”), tribalism (“spite the other aisle”), runaway pork barrel spending, and the complicity of media pundits who exploit the division. As is often the case with Zumwalt, the poem ends ambiguously — is the simple solution of voting incumbents out of office the optimal one? And does this even occur?
