in a hall of heroes who died in vain
the loyal knew well the spoils of faith
a cardinals call rang out and up
measured
echoing
falling like ash from a smokestack
then billowed back up
pouring out behind the council
and down the wide back stairs
a chorus of misled greed and hate
in awful polyphony with the rich father of mercy
responsibility
scrutiny
municipality
professionalism
highest bidded infrastructure use
unhasty legislation
limited floating debt
protected public schools
well-supervised assistance.
rising expenditure inelastic revenue
fictitious valuations
discounting the future
expensive mediocrity
wastefulness inefficiency
services rendered incommensurate with available resources
bogey of threatened removal
