Lord of the Flies

Sometimes outselling The Catcher
In the Rye The Lord of the Flies,
which comes from the land of Ms. Thatcher,
proves Britons tells far fewer lies
describing dystopia than Yankees,
but cover it up it up with a coat
of sugar, like Mr. Bernanke's
prognosis, a sweet antidote
to reality. Piggy and Simon
share a fate that's awaiting us all.
The honeymoon's over, our hymen
is broken, we're ready to fall.

With an ear that is tragically tinny,
we all cry out, "Rubbish & dull.
The US is not like New Guinea,"
and dumb as the numbest numskull,
we're patted in ways that are flitty,
and wander round Central Park Zoos
until we've depleted our kitty,
and then watch the evening news
on TV, delighted disasters
don't happen to us, but to others,
relying on leaders, not masters
of the universe, but merely mothers.

Inspired by an article by John Carey on William Golding in the Culture supplement of the UK's The Sunday Times, August 23, 2009. In an article in which Carey describes how the manuscript of The Lord of the Flies, which on many campuses outsells even J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, was rejected by countless publishers, including Faber and Faber. Their reader, Polly Perkins, wrote: "Time: the Future. Absurd & uninteresting fantasy about the explosion of an atom bomb on the Colonies. A group of children who land in the jungle-country near New Guinea. Rubbish & dull. Pointless." Meanwhile, after President Obama nominated Ben Bernanke for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Rahm Emanuel announces: "The president thinks that Ben's done a great job as Fed chairman, that he has helped the economy through one of the worst experiences since the Great Depression and that he has essentially been pulling the economy back from the brink of what would have been the second Great Depression," the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said on August 25.