Talking Back To Machiavelli

O
Machiavelli,
shush, be still in death
as you never were in life. 

There is a myth nearby
I need to maintain and
I don’t want to know 
that you know it’s there.

I want to believe
this country still works
the way you said
democracy works, but

you had to write
that other book about
princes and such and
that one looks more and more

like the news every day
so shut the hell up,
Nick Machiavelli, you
prescient bastard:

I have a gut that’s always
sour and burning and
a constant headache
because of you.