Whose Puppet Are We?

One of the easiest accusations to aim
at the politician we, as individuals,
dislike is 'They are puppets', as if,
through labelling them we claim
to be an authority over the misbegotten state
they front and the narratives that hide behind it.
Until under us their number is up, they are history.

Puppet states and puppet leaders have existed
from ancient Egypt, Rome, and Babylon onward
right through to modern Russia, China and America,
the latter of which resists being called an empire,
but through the trade rules it sets for smaller countries
it acts exactly like an empire, propagating slavery under it,
not least from within for laws like the Jim Crow Laws. 

Empires are consistently opaque, and the way
that America presents itself is true to to the form.

Given how similar puppetry is to slavery,
amid the toing and froing between America,
Russia, and Ukraine, all of whom have histories
which they wish the public would ask less about, 
the least the public can do is ask the empires
of Russia and America Who is controlling you?
What false history is pulling your strings?
By what long annulled law do you rule the universe?

Don't be surprised, though, if when these empires blank you,
take your voice by controlling the media, and cuts down people
like you for claiming a life outside of subservience to them,
that these empires don't want you to believe exists.