Poetry from Patricia Doyne | SYNCHRONIZED CHAOS

GAZPACHO POLICE

Not only do we have the DC jail which is the DC gulag, but now we have
Nancy Pelosi's gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, and spying on American citizens. – Marjorie Taylor Greene, 2/9/2022

Police are key ingredients in this puree.
Like red, ripe tomatoes, they blend in, indistinct.
Add cucumbers, red onions, green peppers, cumin, garlic:
flavor enforcers. Quality-control squads.
But recipes do not send scofflaws to jail.
Juries are made up of citizens doing their duty.

Maybe average citizens are the bread-base,
a mix of day old and fresh,
adding texture,
thickening the broth,
infusing a medley of ethnic spices.

The angry lady rages about spies:
police that spy on lawmakers.
She decries Pelosi’s private army--
simmering, on call, ready to chill and serve:
gazpacho police.
How does a Congresswoman recruit an army?
Wouldn’t the CIA notice?
And why spy on legislators?
Isn’t the Congressional Record public?

Are Congressmen really sneaking around
doing sneaky things
until busted by gazpacho police?
Perhaps someone is adding water instead of olive oil?
Skimping on oregano?
Nipping at the red wine vinegar?

If you don’t have the right blend of
tomato, veggies, bread, and spice--
informed citizens as well as the gullible,
public servants vs. self-servers--
then all the mincing and mixing
yields only a hiccup of gourmet broth.

So, what’s the point?
Why whip up a goulash of grievances?
Gripers dine on a diet of dudgeon:
outrage at the DC “gulag,”
outrage at alleged spies,
outrage at the scapegoat party leader.
One righteous finger-pointer
reads a speech on the floor of Congress
claiming gazpacho police run rampant in the Capitol.
She pushes big-time bad-guy buttons:
Soviet prison camps and Nazi Secret Police--
though the Nazi zinger sinks in its own sauce,
thickening as it chills…

Somewhere in this name-calling soup,
there lurks a rotten tomato.