Sunday, May 25, 2014

To the Republic

Congratulations Petro
"Chocolate King" Poroshenko
the billionaire confectioner

for winning
the presidential election
in Ukraine today
with 67 percent of the vote

and of course to the voters
who turned out

in record numbers despite
"Russian-backed separatist groups"

who "sought to disenfranchise
entire regions"
with "provocations and violence"

as written by Obama
in a statement today

a president whose victory

was only possible
because ceaseless calls
from citizens like him

from people who were
not running for office
just wanting a voice

were answered with laws
to reduce the degree of untruth
between America's

flagrant bellowing proclamation
of democracy

and its practice.

This poem © 2014 Emily Cooper.