In the Night Kitchen of the Next Election: a Parody

With apologies to Maurice Sendak.

Did you ever hear of Mickey, how he heard a racket in the election year
(Trump) (Sanders, Bloomberg, Warren) (Biden)
and shouted
QUIET DOWN THERE!

And fell through the spectacle, out of his discernment
Past the skepticism & the citizens sleeping tight
(Oh) (Aah) (Ooh) (Democrats! Republicans!)

Into the dark of the night kitchen of the next election?

Where the politicians who bake till Tuesday, November 3rd so we can have democracy the next term mixed Mickey in campaign, chanting:
Money in the campaign! Money in the campaign!
Solicit it! Scrape it! Take it! Bake it!

And they put that campaign up to bake a delicious Mickey-democracy.

But right in the middle of the strategizing and the organizing and the advertising and the polling
Mickey poked through and said:
I’m not the money and the money’s not me! I’m Mickey!

So he skipped from the post-convention polls & into social media all ready to vote in the next election.
He posted and tweeted and liked and commented with emojis

Till it looked okay.
Then Mickey on social media was just on his way

When the politicians ran up with a donation envelope, howling:
Money! Money! Money for democracy!

What’s all the fuss? I’m Mickey the voter! I get the money the Mickey way!
And he grabbed the donation envelope as he flew up

And up
And up
And over the top of the red and blue states in the night kitchen of the next election.

Mickey the donor dived down to the bottom singing:
I’m in the money and the money is in me.
God bless money and God bless me!

Then he swam to the top, pouring money from his wallet into campaign below–
So the politicians they mixed it and beat it and baked it.

Money in the campaign! Money in the campaign!
We bake democracy! And nothing’s the matter!

Now Mickey in the night kitchen of the next election cried
Cock-a-doodle doo!
And slid down the system

Straight into everyday life
(Oh!) (Ho) (Hmm) (Yuck!)
Deceived and depressed.

And that’s why, thanks to Mickey we have democracy every term.

Ipek S. Burnett is a depth psychologist and Turkish novelist living in San Francisco. She’s the author of A Jungian Inquiry into the American Psyche: The Violence of Innocence (Routledge, 2019). For more information visit: www.ipekburnett.com.