New poem: POEM FOR ARNOLD--NOTES ON A FAILED CAREER MOVE

POEM FOR ARNOLD--NOTES ON A FAILED CAREER MOVE


It seemed liike a good idea in 2003--

get rid of that grey-haired, hot-tempered

hectoring middle-school principal of a governor.

Gray Davis was his name.

It was a grey-flannel name that,

in the words of the time-honored cliche,

came direct from Central Casting.



You tried to go PG-13

with that 2-Arnolds-for-one

clone movie few people saw.

It was clear from test screenings

that TERMINATOR 3 was no TERMINATOR 2.

And your dignity probably couldn't stand the idea

of playing Yul Brynner's old robot-gunslinger role

in a remake of WESTWORLD

for less than your usual salary quote.



So what other choice was there besides Governator?

Hell, look what it did for Reagan.



I'll pass over the last seven years in silence

except to say that you found out the hard way

that there are two kinds of leaders

subject to legislative gridlock:

Liberal (aka Progressive) Democrats

and

Moderate Republicans.


It was your curse

that you chose to walk through

Door Number Two.