and tolerate their small undoings. Larceny and cruelty

in politicians are small undoings. Therefore,

we must be deaf to their clamor and travesty.

We must abstain from returning their half-glance,

which should ricochet off our faces like a penny

off a well-made bed. We must be stone carvings,

resembling the ones at the Palais in Vienna,

leaning, arm around a shoulder,

arm around a waist, balancing prop and lintel

on their heads. Caryatids standing as one

under tons of masonry, bearing up the roof,

waiting for the necromancers’ sway to end,

comforting each other until then.