Listening to NPR in a bad mood

Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes.
This place is full
of Questionable Amusements.
Worthy substitutes strike me as
a step down into beige knowns.
It is fashionable to say the right things
and do the right things, ask the right questions.
But there is never an answer to any of it
that makes any sense to anyone
least of all me, you.
Am I worthy of a substitute? Is anyone?
I hate the politics but can't get enough of the
games and hypocrisy and the voices endlessly
wanting what they cannot have. And Clint stands
on the side saying
Deserves got nothing to do with it.

Questionable amusements on the news
and the websites, speeches to those already
willing to work and vote for this fool or for the haircut
who abandons his past for a chance at
an executive future. There is no beauty here.
Questionable amusements mean judgment
of you by someone else who has amused themselves.
Worthy substitutes are deemed by someone somewhere
to be worthy of doing but not worthy of you.
Be afraid of those worthy substitutes.
Be sure of those questionable amusements.