SMART
“‘He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,’ said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the most senior GOP senator. Asked about Carson’s lack of experience in the agency’s areas of expertise, Hatch replied: ‘No, but he has medical experience . . . he’ll pick it up so fast their heads will be spinning.’” – Politico, December 5, 2016
Like when I, a smart
poet, was asked to perform
brain surgery. Heads
were spinning! I put
this one guy’s head atop a
swivel! “A striking
commentary on
the panopticon,” said a
nurse in our workshop.
MAD, TIMES FOUR
after Lewis Carroll
He thought he saw Barack Obama
Wake at Tony Randall’s:
He looked again, and found it was
A cake, with votive candles.
“The age demanded this brave soul, and
Look—here come the Vandals.”
He thought he saw his Dumb Concerns
(Exhausted, Getting Fat):
He looked again, and found it was
Dear God, some KOMPROMAT!
“My prayers are answered! Glory be!
Confirm this story, stat!”
He thought he saw a Thousand Rubles
Shoved inside Trump Tower:
He looked again, and found it was
Ivanka, looking dour.
“A thousand—that’s, what, sixteen bucks?!”
He laughed (for like an hour).
He thought he saw a Frightened Nation
Change its Locks and Keys:
He looked again, and found it was
Some guy on Twitter. “Pleeease!
Just tie him to a chair or something.
Feed him bits of cheese.”
MOTHER TRUMP
Executive order,
I gave at the border,
Heil, Heil,
All fall down
FEBRUARY 2, 2017
America sees its shadow.
So: 207 more weeks in the dark.
Its shadow
is a Manhattan oligarch.
Note: These poems are part of Cody Walker’s forthcoming collection The Trumpiad, which will be published on April 29, 2017, the last of Trump’s first 100 days in office. The author recites “Mother Trump” in front of the Trump International Hotel, Washington, DC, here.