Free Speech Canto XLII by Michael Ceraolo

Free Speech Canto XLII

They billed themselves as

The Worldwide Leader in Sports,

and that meant a lot of hours

when they had no live events to show

had to be filled somehow,

                                      mostly

with reruns of some of those events

or reruns of their highlights shows

But they also had talk programs,

where those who had made it

to the summit of mediocrity

gave their opinions on happenings

both on and off the field

(mostly on)

So far, so so-so

But when some of those hired

to give their opinions,

                                opinions

by no means secret to the hirers,

gave certain opinions they were

either suspended or fired

for doing what they were hired for

A new slogan for the Mousey company:

The Worldwide Leader in Censorship

Hyperbole yes, but

more accurate than the current slogan

Bio:  "Michael Ceraolo is a retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has had one full-length book (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press) and a few chapbooks published (among the chapbooks is Cleveland Haiku, from Green Panda Press). He has a second full-length book, Euclid Creek Book Two, forthcoming from unbound content press, and is continually working on new and existing poetry projects."