My Reply to Bob Lefsetz

The other day

Sitting all alone in LAX
Having only recently inhaled

Truth outside the departure lounge

Albeit in a miniscule dose

Whilst eating a flavorless cheeseburger
And wondering to myself
What could Bob Lefsetz possibly have

Intended by ending his email promotion
Saying: The human condition
Is both fascinating and repulsive

Oh and by the way

This guy Stoller’s new book
Is most definitely worth reading
Now let's just sit back and watch
His Amazon rankings soar

It sounds both off-hand
And way too extreme
This mode of address
Though fully familiar to me from
So many TV shows I've seen over

The course of too many years
Hawking this attitude

As if it's a cure for everything

Including the common cold

But perhaps it's merely a symptom
Of a much more common

And terminal self-preoccupation

Which is precisely what gives rise to

This habitual resort to glibness
When it comes to describing the particulars

Of our daily existence

And then as if in response

To the first hint of

Audience annoyance

To throw up a smokescreen

Of heart rending despair

It's the very same frame of mind
Mind you that Larry and Jerry

Rode right into

The Sitcom Hall of Fame
Obsessively honing their craft
And polishing their timing and lines
To the point of making their

Personal bile all but

Shimmer and shine

But eventually there's moral hazard
That needs to be dealt with here:
It’s inner hollowness itself that provides

An equally strong foundation

For outsized commercial success
And the exquisitely Wagnerian

Tragic-comic sensibility that

Underlies this entire way of life