Only We

We are the overlords and we call the shots!
We decide  just who and what gets in
                            and who and what does not
no matter  how distinctly unworthy the ins
                            or overtly deserving the outs.

We are the gatekeepers and our word is law!
We have carte blanche to duct tape the mouths
              of writers we'd rather
              no ears ever heard or eyes ever saw
— we are the gatekeepers; we are the law!


As the elite troops of groupthink enforcement
having spent our lives reliably conforming
to all the sycophantic  backslapping demands
              of top-drawer establishment whoredom;
having been gladly seduced by the tenured fruits
              of its hush-money comfort and privilege

       only we have CV's sufficiently distinguished
       to highlight careers spent lying     prostrate
              before our god and master Mammon.

Only we have the wisdom and learning
and the connoisseur’s taste to determine
                     what anemic  obedient works
                     to include in the sacrosanct canon
— only we are licensed  to handle the practice
       of conferring status and bestowing prestige.


We are the gatekeepers — the culture cops!
We promote writings no right minds would read.
We compose blurbs and citations so fraught
with absurdly superlative froth
       that halfwits alone would be prone to believe;

reviews  so stuffed with sumptuous fudge
they prove as a rule to be much bigger fictions
       than the fictions presumably being judged.


Enamoured with all that's flaccid
       aficionados  of all that's in fashion
              backers  of the fastidiously inoffensive
mediocrity's unflagging champions
lovers  of all things politically-correctly-pretentious

only we have the right   to decree what is shite
and what's bad and what's good and what's great.


We are the gatekeepers. We make the rules
       and we alone are empowered to choose
just what and who  gets to pass through the gates.