day TWENTY SIX

POTUS 45

You are wanted and unwanted
a savior or a blight
such mixed emotions you stir
as you divide the already divided
Into thick slices of cake
to serve to your friends
who will undoubtedly grow fat
on our misfortune. 

To which I'm sure you will laugh
while the hands of devils
scratch your back and stroke your ego,
because that's what madmen do—
they laugh, while mountains die,
while oceans turn plastic,
while amber grains wither in a child's hand,
while icicles form on mammoth tusks.

So for four long years
I will be afraid of your shadow.

For four long years
I will wonder if our flag will turn to ash.

And as hope shrivels up and dies
on a cross of dead flowers
it will seem as if we have
fallen out of favor with the gods
while historians deny that
the lost city of Atlantis existed
knowing full well that we may
soon be consumed by it.

Unless of course you decide
to peer out the window
of the Oval Office each day
and view us as human beings
instead of dollar signs.

Which is possible but unlikely
for it seems your goal is to
turn our American dreams
into nightmares.

   --Charles Joseph