Old Brown Shoe

OLD BROWN SHOE

It was the oldest trick in the book
there’s an audience for re-runs
old war movies offer terrible sanctuaries
from problems at home
find a blackhat, evildoer
let out the leash
dredge up the pearls from the harbor
lay them at our feet
suspend disbelief, create a perception
send for the script boy.
“Son, I wrote the book,
you do what you have to do.”

Are there souls rising in that drifting smoke
the ash climbing eastward beyond the river?
What warranted that cost?
Too many questions,
too little time.
Extras come cheap.
It’s the stars that cost so much.