New Poem: RESOLUTE

Sitting behind the Resolute Desk
Then rising to meet Kings, Queens and Dictators
It may be trying times
I might have to keep social distance
But I will wear no mask
No mask whatsoever
I refuse to look weak
As I require others to be tested,
Waiting for fifteen minutes
Until they, unlike most of America,
Find out they’re virus-free
And safe to be ushered in
To bask in the presence of Resolute Me

New Poem: MARCH

March came in like a lion cub
Ended like a bullet train
Plunging off a washed away bridge
Into a crevice far far below
>
Some people hear the crash
Smell the rising clouds of smoke
Other people shop at supermarkets
Wearing homemade jackets
With a painting of the too-familiar President
Underneath, there’s a statement:
HATERS GONNA HATE
>
Some persist in embracing a fool’s worthless words
And remain at one with his every change of mind
Turning heads away from unnecessary deaths
Preventable by foresight and advance preparation
Thinking that coronavirus isn’t nearly as bad
As being a member of the Democratic Party

Found Coronavirus Poem

Assembled from various articles/social media posts:

shoot from the hip
keep the government narrative
hold down infection numbers
order a day of prayer
maybe it goes away
like a miracle
where science won’t be necessary
>
afternoon briefing
Oval Office at night
too little in the beginning
now, save the stock market
instead of everyday people
improvisational leader talks of
tests that aren’t there
maybe that will shut them up, he thinks
>
people may/may not be infected
someone claims this exists
because impeachment failed
>
it’s like the end of the world
you can’t find anything
people take far more than they need
no sanitizer, no toilet paper,
even stripping Trader Joes
like piranhas devouring prey
>
accentuate the positive
try not to read too much negative
stay home, don’t dare go out
family and friends become talking pictures
on computer and tablet screens

ESQUIRE’s Charles P. Pierce on our inadequate response to coronavirus

Spend four decades building the case that the federal government is a hindrance to personal freedom and economic prosperity and, sooner or later, people will think anybody can run it and will elect themselves an entertaining moron to do so. Spend four decades building the case that the federal government can’t do anything right and, sooner or later, it will forget how. 

Government, like a hammer, is a tool, as the late Molly Ivins used to say. Like any other tool, there is a right way and a wrong way to use it, and that depends on the competence of the person using it. You can use it to build a house or you can use it to break your thumb. Alas, now, in the middle of a global pandemic, we seem to be governed by people compelled to hit themselves over the head with it, time after time, until blissful unconsciousness reasserts itself and they don’t have to think about the rest of us for a while.

Charles P. Pierce—excerpt from ESQUIRE column.

Bill Clinton in 1996 Equals Joe Biden in 2020.

This is what fearful, non ambitious centrist triangulation once gave us—and, after last night, gives again. Turning the floor over to Bill Clinton’s 1996 State of the Union address, excerpt here:

The era of big government is over. But we cannot go back to the time when our citizens were left to fend for themselves.Instead, we must go forward as one America, one nation working together to meet the challenges we face together. Self-reliance and teamwork are not opposing virtues; we must have both.

I believe our new, smaller government must work in an old-fashioned American way, together with all of our citizens through state and local governments, in the workplace, in religious, charitable and civic associations.

New Poem WINNING UGLY 2020

Inspired by a Rolling Stones song from thirty-five years ago.

Pour my endless money into TV commercials
Hope voters stay low information
Respond like lab rats to stimulation
Give them some exhilaration
>
Watch me put Tweedle-Dum down
As I, Tweedle-Dee, paint him as lying clown
Though he says the same things about women
And people of color that I do
>
In a debate, I’ll defend my misdeeds
Then, I’ll pay for a video carefully edited
Making me look like the winner I wasn’t
>
I’ll spend my way to the top
I’ll make liberals cry in despair
I want no taxes raised on me
As a billionaire, I consider this fair
>
If you dare get in my way,
I’ll force you to sign a NDA
And I’ll have you stopped and frisked
On your way home after you’re disinvited
From taking part in my reboot of America

Older Poem: SHAKEN

Originally published in a 2016 issue of POETIC DIVERSITY.

SHAKEN

sitting at sixth grade desk

but shoulders and back

at too low an angle

so the homeroom teacher

came up to me

and fiercely expelled

the physical demons

she thought I possessed

punctuating this with shouts

about my bad bad behavior

as other students looked 

and did nothing

for fear of teacher

striding to the closet

and pulling big wooden paddle

off its hook

  

this was recorded for posterity

by nondigitized memory

and may never be erased

Donald Trump’s Impeachment Summatized

Last night’s pre-acquittal debacle was brought to you by Nancy Pelosi’s dithering, Mitch McConnell’s cynical machinations, John Roberts’s cowardice and Donald Trump’s autocratic de-evolution of the presidency.

And let’s not forget the DNC and RNC, who each have their preferred candidates and (especially with the DNC) are maneuvering towards primary/convention results that will have little bearing on the will of the people who aren’t cheated (RNC) out of the right to vote in a 2020 election which appears likely to be the most vituperative/volcanic of all.

Finally, progressives/centrists should stop fantasizing about John Bolton showing up on the Senate floor to become a profile in courage. It won’t happen.