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WEEK OF OCTOBER 26

by Dan Campion

All earnestly detest him, so they haunt
The White House halls. “He’s such a d–nd low cuss,”
Breathes Andy hoarsely on each nightly jaunt.
“The only thing he has to fear is us,”
Spry Franklin’s chuckle echoes through the eaves.
“It’s altogether fitting we do this,”
Says Abe, all-seeing how the nation grieves.
Stunned speechless, George can only groan and hiss.
Dead presidents are deadly in their aim.
Ulysses targets Forty-Seven’s bone
Spurs, Richard spits, “I had the prior claim
On crookedness,” and Ronald mocks, “Gold throne!?”
It’s always Halloween for Don. What, sleep?
While Harry’s footsteps prowl the castle keep?

by Matt Schatz

Met a ghost, and he said, “Boo,”
As ghosts are mostly wont to do.
He wasn’t trying to scare or irk;
He simply didn’t like my work.

by Julia Griffin

after Shelley

An old, purblind, spite-addled, Ubu King;
His spawn, their mates and exes, mouths agape
For any mogul’s droppings; jockeying
Lackeys excusing every sleazy jape;
States’ representatives who fawn and cling
While stretching private loopholes to escape;
Citizens gunned down in the streets and mocked
By government officials; a gagged press;
Violence glorified; compassion blocked;
Justice co-opted; merit powerless;
A cheated people, long past being shocked
By any filth their masters can concoct,
Whose vote, in all their manifold distress,
Remains still somehow anybody’s guess.

by Steven Kent

“United Airlines CEO faces rightwing backlash after calling for US wealth tax”
—The Guardian

Some wrongs the Right does not condemn:
The inside trade, the toxic spill,
The secret war, the conflict gem,
The parlous dark satanic mill.
But voices reach a fever pitch
At one offense they won’t let pass:
Suggest we ought to tax the rich,
And you’re a traitor to your class.

by Dan Campion

“Earth and Mars May Have Formed in Weirdly Different Ways”
—The New York Times

If pebbles clumped to make our Earth,
While crashing rocks made Mars,
The difficulty of each birth
Meant nothing to the stars;

There’s nothing “weird” celestially,
It’s we who make a fuss
And view whole worlds obstetrically.
All weirdness lives in us.