poem of the day 02.19.14

the new hitler

the young girl comes over to me

with the newspaper

she looks concerned

she puts the paper down so that i can see it

and says, what does this mean?

it’s an article with a picture

of the fat, baby-faced leader of north korea

under the heading the new hitler

usually this heading is coupled with a picture

of someone of middle eastern decent

or russian or african or a liberal politician

it’s nice to see the press branching out

in their declarations

still they like to anoint a new hitler

in the way the music folks liked to call someone

the new dylan

i’m sure this north korean kid has done his worst

since rising to power

killing his uncle

informing on his mother and brother

starving millions

committing tons of other deplorable acts

while his fat ass downs drink and food

and laughs with has-been basketball heroes

but to call someone a hitler….

it probably means he’s a bad artist, i tell her

the young girl looks at me

like she doesn’t understand

my guess is she doesn’t know

as many bad artists as i do

then we look back down at the paper

at the new hitler

looking over his feeble regime

a self-satisfied smirk on his face

lost in his own bubble

the world by the balls

the big, bad wolf of our day

until the next great villain comes along.