missing johnny and ed and doc on his horn

the talk

show is old school.

very old.

Moses may have been

the first guest.

the stage,

the desk with chairs

to the left,

the wide curtain,

the audience in rows,

happy seals a'clapping,

mixed

with canned laughter

as another stale joke

gets told.

the washed-up celebrities

are in the green

room

getting sloshed or high.

there's a band there too,

weak

and loud.

it's been this way

since 1952. 

Steve Allen, Jack Paar.

Joe Franklin.

the same old.

except now, nothing is

funny, there's

nothing fun

about any of it.

it's a soap box, a pulpit

for the rich,

spewing a litany of hatred

toward those

they disagree with.