UNPERISHING REPUBLIC
i.m. Sen. John McCain
Politicians are not often poets
though they might be actors
in a denouement of Shakespeare’s
Measure for Measure. Just deserts
are rarely staged there, in the Senate,
these days – when a thumbs-down
from a stalwart shaken lion
mimes the freedom to be obstinate
against all bullies, liars, tyrants.
When a simple judgement – white
supremacists aren’t patriots,
they’re traitors – damns those deviants
from one magnanimous dream of Union
(human, not partisan;
global, not only Arizonan).
Comanches raided every town
along the Rio Grande, once: Yankee
& Viet Cong slaughtered
each other, martyred
kids; but we transmute reality
by change of heart, by radical
meekness. With mutual
respect... consensual
advice, consent... our ancient legal
dance of equity, for human dignity...
so might this son of Cain
be able to smile again
in that unperishing Republic of hilarity.
8.27.18
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