Scapegoat Job Application

by Michael Murry

Universal scapegoat wanted
Applicant(s) apply inside
No experience required
Simply pander to our pride

In our image we will make you
Nothing you need do or say
Ambiguity desired
What you’ve spoken, we will say

Unpredictable is better
Less you do, the more we gain
That way, anything that happens
Afterwards we’ll just explain

In your mouth some words inserted
By our ministers and priests
Gild the lining of their pockets
From our meager meals their feasts

From each one what he produces
To the church its lustful needs
You must only never quibble
With the contents of our screeds

You must form the perfect mirror
Simply stand there and reflect
Into you we’ll pour our darkness
This, of course, you can’t reject

We’ll write down what you’ve commanded
Do not trouble with the “what?”
Someone else will figure that out
You just keep your own mouth shut

Do not feel the least embarrassed
At the empty praise you get
Even though you’ve never earned it
Just pretend and soon forget

When we do the vain and stupid
We’ll claim you approved the joke
When we pass the ammunition
Your great name will we invoke

When our slaves complain, we’ll tell them
That you’ve authorized their grief
When their country’s wealth we’ve stolen
You, we’ll say, ordained the thief

When the pile of bodies rises
You, we’ll claim, feel really sad
Nothing, though, you’ll do to stop us
Interfering would be bad

See the virtue of your “power”?
Impotence by other names
Covers up the crime and guilty
Something rules but never blames

Thus we’ve framed our Constitution
Nothing higher than this dream
All supremacy is equal
You, of course, are “more” supreme

Burnt upon your sacred altar
Though you’re dead, you’re still not stiff
On your back our sins we’ll pile up
Then we’ll shove you off a cliff

What we do defines our “essence”
Nothing “is” or ever “was”
Big spooks in the sky, and little,
Don’t exist; but “doing” does

So our learning curve has no slope
So our E.E.G. line’s flat
None can “damn” and none can “bless” us
Only we can manage that

So, we’ve got a deal then, don’t we?
Such an offer, who’d refuse?
Nothing paid for nothing offered
That’s what makes you great to use