for my son.
He wants to be a politician.
Not the merriest of Christmases
nor the happiest of New Years
in American politics.
Abraham Lincoln is neatly
stacked next to Teddy Roosevelt
at our local bookstore
With award-winning volumes
of FDR and Washington
sitting comfortably nearby.
With another somewhat dusty
book standing far to the right
On a shelf in the non-fiction
biography section titled
"Donald Trump: America’s
Failing President."
Sitting next to a few dull
panned volumes excoriating
Richard Nixon.
My son is a passionate
progressive Democrat.
He, like the rest of us,
is wondering how a racist,
With money as his God,
occupies the White House
in America?
As billionaires get tax
cuts, beggared sick lay
ill in their beds
Those in government spew
anti-Muslim venom, gay pride
flags are burned, the NRA
controls Congress.
Did our commander in chief
really just tweet that a US
Senator is a whore?
Did he really say that Rocket Man
will be met with fire and fury like
the world has never seen before?
I want to set off the world's
loudest alarm. I want to bang
a hammer on the world's
noisiest can.
Looking for a Christmas present
for my son. Not an easy gift
choice to make. Perhaps FDR,
but he seems so far way.
My son wants to be a politician.
I can't imagine why.
© Gil Hoy
Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.
