Our grifter whose art of the Fox-spun spiel
loaded with ego overloaded with id
out of context without conscience
whose aggrieved entitlement
whose flatulent fraudulence
became our American Tragedy
hollow be thy name
hateful is thy kingdom
of racist misogynist
xenophobic homophobic
ranting raving
trumped-up anger
here & everywhere on earth where
your knee-jerk anti-science arrogant ignorance
as public policy shamefully mining misery & corruption
cruelty your credo confining
children in cages
you give us each day our daily dread
of bullying bravado bullshit
of denying or ignoring facts
of flaunting acts
of mendacity high & low
oh forgive us for in the future near & far
you’ll be reduced to trivia in every bar:
who’s the “populist” who lost the popular vote?
who’s the subject of Commander-in-Cheat?
who’s the only prez in pro rasslin’s hall of fame?
Lead us no more after 2020 and deliver us
from your narcissism your pathology
go away retreat retire go back
under the rocks of unreality TV & steal estate deals
from which you floated bloated
like a toxic beach ball
deceptively at first appearing harmless even perversely playful
cartoonish buffoonish idiotic patriotic pompous ass
your neck red with resentment your klan-white face your gas-flame blue eyes
let’s not forget your swept-back combed-over orange-yellow mane
as lame as your qualifications such as they are
limited to masterful mimicking of Il Duce gesticulation manipulation
well you know how he ended up strung up
upside down in a public plaza
by those who’d once been swayed by his swagger
or you probably don’t know since reading & history
are beneath & beyond you & your demonizing
morally cracked compass
your compassion-clogged con
your junk fool mentality.
May our American Tragedy end
the sooner the better. Amen.
poetry has appeared in The Esthetic Apostle and The Write Launch and is forthcoming in Raw Art Review and Forbidden Peak Press. His prose has appeared in Hippocampus, Cabibi, and Elysian Fields Quarterly, and is forthcoming in High Shelf Press. For more than thirty years he was a daily copy editor and weekly columnist on various newspapers. He lives in Palo Alto, California.