day THIRTEEN HUNDRED and TWENTY FIVE

Poem on the Back of His Envelope

The only thing my congressman’s representation is worth
is the stamp on the return envelope of his fundraising letter
which I plan to pull off and use to pay a bill
if his boss doesn’t ruin the Post Office by then

He wants my money and wants my vote
but calls me names like “the lunatic left”
He talks about left-wing bullies and militants
but not the armed militia who stormed the Michigan capitol
after his boss told them to liberate the state from shutdowns
and not the white supremacists and conspiracy theorists
who the FBI calls domestic terror threats
and his boss says they are some “very fine people”

He doesn’t mention his boss by name but talks about values
while his boss pardons criminals, takes revenge on heroes,
sides with dictators and calls Americans and allies the “enemy”

My congressman never mentions the Covid-19 pandemic
that has killed more than 150 thousand of us
particularly in the states that his boss convinced
to open too early after he insisted the virus would disappear

He says nothing about police chokeholds
that kill people in broad daylight
Nothing about Russian bounties on American soldiers
or Russia’s interference in our elections to help his boss

He doesn’t say anything relevant to our district
He ignores the worst economic crisis
since the Great Depression
and doesn’t mention his boss’s record-high deficit
or how we can fix it

The last time my congressman spoke in our town
he was still complaining about Jane Fonda
I’d like to vote him out
but no one’s running against him
I’ll vote his boss out instead

--Colleen Redman