A POET’S RESPONSE TO AN ACTOR’S ASSESSMENT OF A POLITICIAN’S INTELLIGENCE, UNDERTAKEN IN THE SPIRIT OF THE BELIEF THAT WE’RE ALL BOZOS ON THIS BUS
I’m dumber than a Phillips head screwdriver
or on-ramp or speculum or rain and every diacritical
you can think of, critically or not, can do something
I can’t, I believe in the wisdom of matter,
that every form it takes is a species of intelligence,
an embodiment of knowledge, so to call
a candidate for president as dumb as a fencepost
or as dumb as a combover or as dumb
as a three-legged stool on the side of the road
looking as if it wants to cry, is like chiding the ocean
because it does a shitty Watusi or making fun of a puppy
who barks at its own hiccups, there’s a video of this,
probably more than one, and yes it’s kind of stupid
but that puppy could sniff out cancer or cocaine
better than you, and wag more fulsomely and literally
than you, and a fence post does an honest day’s work
every day of its life if given the chance, so if you must try
to insult someone running for president,
it’s better to call them as dumb as someone
who thinks calling someone dumb is still in style
after third grade, and what if that person is rubber
and you are glue, what then, dumbass, are we to make
of democracy in 2024, if insults are the currency
of debate, if love isn’t at the core of the endeavor,
love of our shared stupidity, cupidity, humidity,
our common state of befuddlement
over where this is all headed
and how best to get where we don’t know
we’re going, we need a president
who isn’t afraid to shrug, who gets
that ten people putting ten heads together
still leaves us with what experts refer to
as half a brain, please, god, enough
of the solo swagger, the hero pose,
I want a president who puts the everyone
in team, who believes that people
are our best chance to be human,
to maybe, possibly, one day
figure out what that even means.
—from Poets Respond
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Bob Hicok: “This is a poet’s response to an actor’s assessment of a politician’s intelligence.”
