Velvet red rises
the act comes on
The Great
The Famous
Of course we shall watch.

White hats
Black rabbits
No real magic
Except for the human folly
That is "persuasion"

Influence,
whatever name it goes by,
Makes fools of us all.

Feed them
Feed them the satire
Delicious food of the underground
Hungry, we are, won't you feed us?

The audience laughs and cries and
Craves more
More (over)powers
More gifts of closed boxes
And beautiful, lovely straight jackets.

Faces mirror our panes
Represented by a few expressions,
Caused by a few ideas.
Make the monkey jump through the Hoop,
The elephant skip upon a leg
The tiger dance in the ring.

Make us laugh and tear and scream
Because we want to
Free choice is a virtuous command
Swallow it, throttle it, because we must.