The author insists on peacemaking instead of war mongering and mocks the rhetorical nonsense our leaders use to justify carnage as he uses space and even spelling as a mirror of intent exploring the relationship between how we use words to how we act in the world.The world needs this book
Susan Bright, author, Breathing Under Water
Mike Maggio's poems unpack the language of the propagandists, demonstrating how the corporate-government-advertising mafia tries to control language and therefore thought itself. The poems play with us, too. They scramble algebra, advertising jingles, news casts, job notices, the Bible, quiz shows - the whole crazy culture - and give us back our hearts, our true selves. Exuberant, angry, full of compassion - a poetry for our beautiful, broken world.
Sarah Browning, Coordinator, DC Poets Against the War
The poems of Mike Maggio will hit you in the head like a rock. Considering the state of the world this might be a good thing. Maggio is a political writer. On every page of deMOCKracy he writes with the urgency that reminds us that our house is burning. I suggest one begin with the poem "Raw Footage" and observe how this gem is the key that turns the lock. Oh, and Maggio's "Paper Cranes" is nothing short of poetry sculpture made with stanzas. There is tenderness and beauty captured in words that confess to this poet's love for human life.
E. Ethelbert Miller, Board Chair, Institute for Policy Studies
Bless Mike Maggio for saying "Enough is enough." I've met a lot of people who want an end to the Bush junta but few who know HOW to achieve it aside from violent revolution. Maggio salvages things with a sly combo of comedy and scathing satire. His Mockumentary is required reading for those of us who ask - "Is it Vietnam yet?"
Richard Peabody, editor Gargoyle Magazine