tells a sad sorry worth 7 min.

Episode IV of "Election '08," a series of spoken word works by Mike Varley covering the 2008 campaign. A new entry every Sunday with free mp3 downloads at mikevarley.com.

On Health Care

I arose one morning
naked to potential harms -
exposed in a nation of lobbies.

And my duty was plain:
to recover myself from future misfortunes
distasteful to casual ears.

The family barber, the third
down neighbor, the cragged
librarian, the cordial face.

Who receive your ruin with genuine something,
reflect on relief for the us vs. them,
then repack your sadness as cautionary scare tales,
reinforcing a truth that is tired and hopeless.

So I went down to the cinema
where the action movies played,
hopin' to figure their talent
for makin' sick things okay with music.
I asked the teller, a flannel feller, what he reckoned would be a good score for malaria.

His glaze cried manager
and I complied, buying a billet
in the name of wellness.
I found the boss
stacking wood and pounding flapjacks,
asked him the best montage
for Hepatitis C.

His beard quilled anger
but I stood on regardless,
not wanting to ruin my mother.
I gambled he'd know
what sound effects go
with cancer or terminal others.

"Listen here, son,
these cords don't sort themselves
and I'm powerful tired.
Take this reel to Viewing Room B
and leave us your license
for measure."


The reel was government dogma
stashed safe in a shortbread tin.
Viewing Room B,
a one seat affair,
Biology style projector.
I slipped the copay into the slot
and watched the master plan.

It started red, red, clay red,
fallout red, fear for the innocent red,
and the music began: Old World choir
flanked by screeching wheels
and dire percussion, flashing images,
logic vouching for madness,
children weakened to wilting, laying on tile floors,
automated TouchTone condolences,
star for settlement,
pound for denial,
three to repeat all your options,
elderly neighbors lost
to the maw of vernacular,
forced purchase on Institution's shores,
amber prescription world views
halting further history, clothi