There is a new “Commission on Unalienable Rights”
Investigating whether there’s a thing called human rights
For aliens & atheists & immigrants & kids
And anyone who alienates It by the color of her skin.
Couplets: “The Human Wall”
Because no one will pay to build His WALL–
Not Mexico, not Congress, not even the Wall
Street Journal or Faux News, not anyone—
The PRESIDENT will send soldiers with guns
To make sure Mexico does not invade.
Nat. Guard will guard the desert (without shade)
As long as Trump proclaims that they will stand
On rattlesnakes and in the Rio Grande.
And who will pay to build this Human Wall?
We humans who don’t need this wall at all.
Couplets for Justice
By John Kaufman
In honor of World Poetry Day
Couplets for those who don’t betray
The verse of stars, the vow of stones
And meet the sinking sun alone–
As if a cell can bar a soul …
As if a whale can hide the whole.
Sincere: To Honor Poetry on World Poetry Day, Help Imprisoned Poets Across the Globe
By John Kaufman
PEN International is profiling four poets on World Poetry Day now being held either in prisons or under house arrest for dissenting against injustice through art and/or journalism:
Aron Atabek of Kzakhstan,
Liu Xia of China,
Amanuel Asrat of Eitrea,
Dareen Tatour detained by Israel.
To see what you can do to help, click on this link to learn more about each poet and his/her work and where to write in their support.
Couplets: “King of the Expedient”
If Trump banishes Mueller will Republicans banish him?
Offhand I’d say the odds are much skinnier than slim.
It’s going to take some form of electoral disobedience
To evict a president who demands we pledge allegiance
To him, to him, to him, to him, to him, to him–to Him!
(“Fake news” if he should lose, for truth is but his whim:
He may have to be escorted out of the White Residence.)
Democracy will fire Trump–the King of the expedient.
Couplets: “Tillerson, late of State . . .”
Tillerson, late of State, was fired by a tweet
From the president, our “moron” (cheek!)
As he was called, reportedly, by Till-
erson, undiplomatically, but still . . .
Couplets: “It Was a Dark and STORMY Day”
Within the White House the forecast is “Stormy.”
But the president swears that NOTHING porny
Ever happened with that woman hushed
With money that had NOTHING to do with slush.
Lawyers pay off porn stars all the time
Right before elections . . . with their own dime
Without the knowledge of the one was horny,
Don’t they? No fury like a woman named Stormy.
