I HEART JAMES COMEY
I wonder if you feel like me
James Comey?
I wonder if they whisper that you’re
an authoritarian behind your back as well,
an untrustworthy independent,
a thinker! By God, your own man!
I wonder if you feel like me
James Comey?
Looking at those grim, senatorial faces
from your desk and microphone
as I look at my high school students
always on the hot seat
but not daring to show it, a sip
of water and I’m off to explain myself,
my timing and my thinking.
Do you feel like me
James Comey?
Always the scapegoat for things
that are hardly ever in your control?
Do you feel the snake of anxiety
wrapping itself around you at midnight?
Do you feel like me
James Comey?
When a group of childish parents decide
to call the Principal and complain.
“He’s an authoritarian,” they say.
And the next morning you’re dismissed
for the following year. “Thank you,
but you don’t quite fit in, Mr. Comey.”
Thank you for reporting on me
three times that you were not reporting on me
Thank you Mr. Comey!
Thank you! Thank you!”
Did you feel like me
Mr. Comey, when your letter came
as my letter came, in the mail as well:
We thank you for your services
and wish you best of luck
with your future endeavors?
Do you feel like me
Mr. Comey, knowing you did your best
that you tried to follow the book
as well as the book in your heart
and that they both had failed?
—from Poets Respond
May 14, 2017
__________
Alejandro Escudé: “I can’t help but feel for the guy. I know he messed up during the Hillary scandal. But I don’t believe Comey is partisan. I think he just met the wrath of an entitled child-President. And how can you not watch these larger than life characters on the news and not associate them with events in your own life? Well, I can’t.” (webpage)
