In Thursday’s New York Times, Nicholas Kristof has a piece titled, “To Reject Trump the Perverse, Poets Wage a Battle in Verse.”
In it, Kristof provides examples of how poets battle President Trump with an arsenal of verse.
Coincidentally, about three months before the 2016 presidential elections, “a good friend, a combat vet, a patriot,” wrote a poem exhorting us to get out and vote: ”Don’t be a Dolt – Get out there and Vote!”
The poem concluded:
Now I’ll say it one more time, I can’t say it any louder
As an old combat vet, of the USA I could not be prouder
But it won’t stay the same if our own vote we give away
To ideologues who by fear and nostalgia arguments are swayed
Whether because too many of us were “dolts” or for whatever reason, we now find ourselves in the situation my friend so well predicted in the poem.
In a new poem, my friend describes the havoc the new president has created in just the first two weeks of his presidency.
It took 700 words to do so and he hasn’t even started into the third week, which promises to be as tumultuous. “Now I could go on with verse after verse…And the case against Trump would get even worse,” says my friend.
Here it is:
We’re coming to take you away, away
We’re coming to take you away
Two weeks is enough
To stomach Trump’s crazy stuff
In his overpowering search for popularity
Has only led to polarity
Americans seek a President that is calm and steady
Not one that is impulsive and “heady”
A “Uniter” who pulls the country together and stuff like that
Thoughtfully communicating through a “Fire side chat”
What has this “Uniter” done so far – what’s the score?
Here’s some examples, there are many more
A “travel” ban – pulled out of thin air
With no coordination, notification and legally unfair
Confusion reigned – none of the countries affected had sent “bad” guys
Including Iraq – they are one of our best allies!
None of the countries of the 9/11 bombers were included
Do you think Trump is ignorant or simply deluded?
He has already sown confusion and chaos
Mr. President, have you your marbles lost?
A Great Wall on the Mexican border
Was one of your first Presidential orders
And you shouted: “they will pay”
But when you insulted the Mexican President he stayed away
You had to go to Congress for the American citizens to pay
Is Trump ignorant or simply deluded, for at the end of the day
How could anyone think a foreign country would pay?
[Now if you want to see a Great Wall, just go to China
13,170 miles long and from 25 to 46 feet tall – it is the finest!]
Now on “Obama-Care” he was on a tear
He impulsively repealed it to a Republican cheer
But it’s like trying to fix a flat tire on your car with no spare there
He is all velocity
And blind with pomposity
Again he sowed confusion and chaos
Mr. President, have you your marbles lost?
Diplomacy and compromise
Are signs of a good leader – it’s just plain wise
But he insists there has to be winners and losers to be strong
If he follows this perception in his approach it won’t be long
Before he has alienated both friend and foe
And our national economy and reputation will be low, low, low
We’re coming to take you away, away
We’re coming to take you away
Now so far in only two weeks
You have insulted many by word and by tweets
The Mexican President, Australian Prime Minister and plenty in between
This compulsive ranting, both childish and mean
Indicates a man who is off his beam
Now he wants to de-regulate, cut taxes, curtail immigration and add tariffs to our trade
Go back to Herbert Hoover’s time where comparison of a similar program can be made
Now as ironic as it may seem, Hoover and his background are similar even more
Neither had been elected to a public office before
Now if insanity can be described
By doing the same thing and expecting different results, then you get the right vibe
He’s a guy with an all-consuming need for approval with an ego stratospheric
If we let him continue his insanity we will suffer results cataclysmic
He’s a man who needs to be surrounded by fawning sycophants
People who will cheer when he rants
It is hard to keep up with his rambling thoughts and views – they come and then disappear
They apparently change by the input of the last one to have his ear
He’s not a man who has nor had experience governmental
Therefore it would be wise to rely on experienced hands and not go experimental
But he brings in family and an Alt-Right propagandist to be his strategy gurus
Now Steven Banner, the one with the caustic manner, can tell him all he knew
Oh he of thin skin, cannot accept that the popular vote he did not win
Three million illegal voters, more fans on the mall
These inane tweets make no sense at all
There’s no understandable logic
They are simply idiotic
Now I could go on with verse after verse
And the case against Trump would get even worse
His delusional view of reality
Just increased when he became President of Me, Me, Me
The only way out is to prove his insanity
For we can no longer suffer his hyper vanity
If we want to survive
We need to enact Amendment number twenty-five
We’re coming to take you away, away
We’re coming to take you away
Lead image,. courtesy Donkeyhotey.com
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.