True competence is not proclaimed assertions,

Here more conferred by eloquence and deed;

Contention cast as insolent subversion

And hence through pressed abidance, we accede.

So then a dunce ascends through gilded favor

As few dare name the naked lies they see;

Twin follies to provide a cloaking vesture

That emperors may don incredibly.

Daft men here wallow in a shared delusion

Built, of course, in shallow stylized thought—

Democracy, the myth of feigned inclusion

Where citizens subscribe through things they ‘got’.

Sheer subterfuge then plays on paltry greed;

—There unto every pot, at least one need.