The Handler Poem by Nancy Ames

(This is a 'caricature poem', a portrayal of an exaggerated, theatrical character, who is speaking.)


'Modern social science fiction
can easily eliminate
any conscious contradiction
and all the literary hate.

We have the celebrity ghosts,
ridiculing disillusion,
and designer talk-show hosts
to exaggerate confusion.

There are faces in the background
but they're not all bodyguards,
ex-wives who sleep around
or old political die-hards.

Representing the resentful
can be a dirty, thankless job
and, although the money's plentiful,
sometimes I can't suppress a sob.

I have to do what I am told
and I always go the distance;
they must be testing the threshold
of aggravated sales-resistance.

But why do I have to be there?
It just looks so darn suspicious,
and I got such a nasty scare
when the last campaign turned vicious.

The first rule is never panic;
sometimes their lungs need exercise.
I don't think I look satanic;
how can they see behind my eyes? '