Cinema Sonnet XXV:
U.S. v. Spirit of ‘76
Michael Ceraolo
You could look it up,
because you couldn’t make up something like that:
the government out-Dadaing the Dadaists,
out-absurding the absurdists,
with the marvelously mis-named Espionage Act,
which had nothing to do with espionage
and everything to do with suppression of speech
And here is the height (or depth) of sublime stupidity:
a filmmaker makes a movie about the American Revolution,
showing British atrocities along the way
And
the judge gives him ten years in prison under the Act,
because said showings of such a film could cause people
'to question the good faith of our ally, Great Britain'
Before you laugh remember the law is still on the books,
waiting
