Vice versa

Some people say
as the crow flies
to the point, to put it in a direct way
without circular lies

Some such phrases
do not translate
in juxtaposed places
that relate only to the date

Used for reference
time and setting
using inference
for aiding and abetting

By and by
hook and crook
we try and try
to avoid similarities look

Strange as it may sound
replacing new from the old
from Latin I have found
is really the same story told

Used to placate relate and abbreviate
temporal occurrences
another way to plainly state
'panem et circenses'

Things we need to live
laced in lovely distraction
so we can forgive
and forget any minor infraction

Of Justice laced with wheat
the generous goddess of grains Annona
who would never cheat
using her bountiful plains of flora and fauna

Bread and circuses, a tactic to please
what about the Futuere
it's simpler to just appease
with an act, circus, or some such affair

Part of the freakshow or third act
The ringmaster still rules
Bread and circuses from adage to fact
All of us once clowns graduating to fools

And two thousand years later
this archaic Latin term
is apropos even greater
as our society does affirm

You reap what you sow
When in Rome
as the saying does go
There's no place like home

Where two kinds of bribes work best
Games and aesthetics, beauties and the beast
Rule the roost, broody at best, squatting on my chest
For me, these loaves and lullabies sate and soothe me least.

"The human soul needs actual beauty more than bread."
-D.H. Lawerence

First image of painting by Alexander von Wagner (1838-1919), [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. "In the Circus Maximus in Rome".

Second Photo Image By Carpenter (Sergeant), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. "Animals at War, 1945, Kiri and Many, circus elephants, help clear bomb damage during war in Hamburg".