More Mystery Drones, Please

 The mystery drone story is great good fun. 

I hope we can keep it up. 

This is exactly what American politics should be. 

There's an intriguing spooky conundrum. With just the right frisson of the uncanny. 

But the stakes are also incredibly low. No one is getting hurt here. 

And the evasive, unsatisfying, vague, and faintly gaslight-y responses from federal officials

Have given us just the right amount of pretext for our ever-present anti-establishment urge

State and local politicians can wax into high dudgeon

Saying: "Why won't they tell us what's really going on?" 

And

"Why can't we just shoot the damn things?"

And this time—there's no one inside

So Trump can offload his brutal fantasies

Without asylum-seekers or accused shoplifters being implied

To be at the other end of the gun barrel. 

It's like we're back in the '90s

All enjoying ourselves

The X-Files redivivus

Just the right amount of what 

Don DeLillo once called 

"American magic and dread" 

The emotional core of all 

Our country's not-quite-earnest pop culture. 

And there's the fun ongoing argument too

The chance to try out one's skeptical chops

And say: Maybe it's all just a bunch of airplanes

And we're merely noticing them for the first time

The same way Seattle residents in the 1950s

suddenly started spotting windshield pits. 

In short, its agonistic without being antagonistic 

In just the way Johan Huizinga tried

To make all politics function

It should be a show

Where we put on roles

He huff and blow 

And blame the state

But we all know

All the time 

When to pack up our toys

Can't we keep it this way; can't we, please; can't we, can't we? Don't make us forget 

That's it all in good fun

Don't let us go back 

To the world where the play-acting is real

And we forget that this is all supposed to be 

Just a game between friends.