THE ONE IN POWER
He had a dog that failed
to come when he called,
so had it executed
and stuffed.
He likes to squeeze
the pinched neck
of an hourglass
to imagine himself
strangling time.
In his garden, trees
are cultivated to bow
toward the main path
so it seems, as he passes,
even nature obeys him.
To calm his nerves,
he’ll sit in bed at night
with a dictionary,
crossing out the words
he doesn’t like.
—from Rattle #66, Winter 2019
__________
Michael T. Young: “I’m painfully aware that even at my most attentive, I miss so much of life. For this reason, writing to me is a way to pay close attention, not only to beauty, but even to the suffering or ugliness. Even here, in this poem, which was my effort to grapple with the absurd presidency of Trump: someone both clownish and despotic, someone I continue to simultaneously laugh at and be frightened by.” (web)
