Demagogue

Bio

 

Brandon Marlon is a writer from Ottawa, Canada. He received his B.A. in Drama & English from the University of Toronto and his M.A. in English from the University of Victoria. His poetry was awarded the Harry Hoyt Lacey Prize in Poetry (Fall 2015), and his writing has been published in 150+ publications in 23 countries.

 

Witness the insolent upstart
nonchalantly rouse the rabble,
bloviating magniloquent bombast
around the clock, calibrated to shock
sophisticates and gull dupes into doing
his bidding for the sake of sating
an overweening egomania.

The soi-disant populist insists
on his lips outpouring hyperbole
at every opportunity;
enamored with his own extravagance,
he ostentates and gasconades
with neither scruple nor shame,
a Cleon or Cleophon incarnate.

Noisome in tone and temperament,
he inveterately tergiversates
and showers dispraise upon his foes,
unable to refrain from a fatuous affray.
Now he enflames passions, now he exploits grudges,
inciting the unwashed masses to uprise
and masturbate their grievances in public,
airing bitterness and resentment like dirty laundry.

Don’t bother reminding him of the fate
that awaited Hyperbolus and Androcles;
he pays no mind to hard-won wisdom
disturbing his dreams of being wreathed in bay.
The swine with his snout in the trough
errs in his belief that a golden nose ring
can disguise a hog from the sty of hubris,
and retard the advance of comeuppance.