America, America, Burning Bright
Coiffed Beast Saunters
Soaring rhetoric is getting the short straw this campaign season, so how about some pointed poesy? LAUREN FREY inaugurates a series of political verse to carry us through November.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Favorite American Presidents (Of Recent Note)
- Cures for the Common Cold (Of Recent Note)
- New Year's Realizations (Of Recent Note)
Also by Lauren Frey Daisley
» SEE MORE
- Bright Inaugural Day, Washington (December 2, 2008)
- The Well-Known Citizen (September 16, 2008)
- The Republican Speaks of Jungles (July 3, 2008)
Also in America, America, Burning Bright
» SEE MORE
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PHOTOGRAPH BY MIKE ZEIS
Voting and voting with increasing fire
The governed cannot sway the government;
Things fall apart; the center party folds;
Democracy is forced upon the world,
The blood-spilled win is forced, and everywhere
Our promise of beneficence is unsound;
The best know better than to run, while the worst
Are full of focus-grouped sound bites.
Surely some restoration is at hand;
Surely the Second Kennedy is at hand.
The Second Kennedy! Hardly is that name out
When a vast image out of the Wall Street Journal
Troubles my mind: somewhere in the sands of the desert
A shape with hawk body and the head of a monkey,
A laugh dumb and weightless as a clown,
Is moving his slow thoughts, while all around him
Reel advisors of indignant Senate turds.
The missiles drop again; but now I know
That two terms of scary sleep
Were turned to nightmare by a misleading fable,
And what coiffed beast, his inauguration come round at last,
Saunters toward Washington to be sworn?
The Romney
Romney Romney, taking flight,From your failure on the right:
What angelic hand or eye
Could back you up but Moroni?
Which rich and powerful guys,
Could replenish your funding supplies?
On what grounds did you choose to hire?
The campaign manager you should have fired?
And what issues, framed real smart,
Could’ve given your campaign a nice kick start?
And when McCain began to beat,
What to do? Announce defeat?
Which supporters? Who to retain,
In what mental state was your brain?
When was the moment? When they finally grasped,
Did your constituents let out a gasp?
‘Cause back when you announced to all those cheers
And got loaded up with volunteers:
Didn’t it fill you with utter glee?
On that you and Dennis Kucinich agree.
Romney Romney, taking flight,
From your failure on the right:
What angelic hand or eye
Dare vote for you but Moroni?
—Published February 15, 2008
