Take Care of Our Own

“For us the living"
said President Obama today

at the Arlington National Cemetery

"those of us
who still have a voice

it is our responsibility
and our obligation

to fill our silence
with our love and gratitude

and not with just our words
but with our actions."

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

The Big Bad Socialist

Donald Trump
who just yesterday

said he'd "love to debate Bernie"
that "it would get very high ratings"
and "should be in a big arena"

and that the networks
should donate their profits from the debate
to "women's health issues"

has today changed his mind

meaning either he no longer cares
about high ratings
or big arenas

(or about pretending to care
about women's issues)

or that maybe
just maybe

his advisers think
he wouldn't know
how to respond.

Of course Trump
as is his way

gives twist endings
to his apparent compliments

when he says
that Hillary Clinton and Deborah Wasserman Schultz

have rigged the system
to keep Bernie Sanders from winning

but still concludes
"it seems inappropriate
that I would debate the second-place finisher."

To which Bernie Sanders sees Trump
and raises him a

"What are you afraid of?"

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Wall of Confusion

Trump International
Golf Links & Hotel Ireland

has filed a statement
about building a sea wall

to protect the resort
from climate change

although Donald Trump
is still calling it a "hoax".

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Many Taxing Returns

In Trump Logic Land
(also known as his brain)

Donald Trump
can ask the leader of the free world
to reveal his birth certificate

to prove
that he was not born in Kenya

while promising that then
he will disclose his tax returns

and said leader
can reveal his birth certificate

and in response Trump says
"It’s none of your business
you’ll see it when I release"

(whenever that will be)

and adds
undoubtedly in an effort
to reassure the public

"But I fight very hard
to pay as little tax as possible"

(as was revealed
in a 1981 report
from New Jersey Casino Control Commission

which said that in 1978 and 1979
he reported a combined income

of negative $3.8 million
and paid zero dollars in taxes)

and still expects
Americans should trust him
to alleviate their tax burden.

(Well maybe he'll do that

by telling them how to trick
the federal government

and exploit
some of those same loopholes.)

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Voting Rights Amend-mints

There is now
a new flavor

of Ben & Jerry's ice cream

one which does not reference Bernie Sanders
as this poet predicted

but does use
the surmised suffix of "mint"

to call for "Empower Mint"

and it won't be long
till Donald Trump

tweets that the invention of the flavor
is a "sad" and "politically calculated" move

unlike of course
the introduction
of discriminatory voter ID laws.

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Laying the Foundation

Ivanka Trump

is putting in a good word
for her father Donald

by saying the candidate
has "elevated" the country's politics

which may be true

if she means that our political dialogue
has nowhere to go but up

or if by defining our values
against Trump's

we can build a bigger and better wall
around and above him.

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Parlez-Vous Parsey

Google has decided to pick up

where the poll
to pick the name

of the UK's new $300-million-dollar
polar research ship

left off

by calling the newly-released code
for its artificial-intelligence-based
natural language-analyzing tool

Parsey McParseface.

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Protected Classiness

President Obama

has signed a bill
that declares the bison
to be the country's national mammal.

Though symbolic
the act is nonetheless
an important reminder

to protect the species.

Meanwhile North Carolina Governor
Pat McCrory

has declared the bathroom gender attendant

(frequently a concerned man
entering a women's restroom

to ensure
that there are no men in there)

to be the state's
next protected treasure.


This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Trump's Initiative

Donald Trump
now has to contend
with the fact

that he has a much higher likelihood
than Hillary Clinton

of experiencing a
legal snafu

during an inconvenient time

in that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel
has already scheduled a trial

on November 28th

for a class-action lawsuit
brought against him

by disgruntled students
of the now-defunct
(huge surprise)

Trump University

who in advance
and under expectation
of further instruction

gave his course 98-percent approval ratings
without the cloak of anonymity
and paid up to $35,000

for seminars
that wound up being
more like infomercials

and which did not deliver
the previously-promised material.

If Trump wins the presidency

may the rest of us
who are not gullible rich people

hold on to the slim hope

that he will forget to deliver
on all his campaign promises.

(And if that doesn't work
may we all remember
to duck and cover.)

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

Article Nineteen

Today Ted Cruz
has decided to cruise away

from the presidential race

leaving the-only-reasonable-sounding-
adult-in-the-room-John Kasich

and what-hasn't-been-said-already-
Donald Trump

while Bernie Sanders

has won Indiana.

Coincidentally today is also

World Press Freedom Day

and if anything good
can be said of Donald Trump

is that his blanket hatred of journalists

only compels them
to work harder.

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.

To Seem and To Be

At his final Correspondents' Dinner yesterday
after so many instances

of doing it colloquially

(which
for the slang-uninitiated
is a good thing)

President Obama

literally dropped the mic

though it was
still on purpose
and with purpose.

Said the actress
singer and activist
Rosario Dawson

"There's a connectivity"
with the Obamas

and "it feels seamless"

and remarked on the president's work

"as a community organizer"
and "how that’s grown
into the presidency."

"We need that level of inspiration.
It’s going to be hard
to see that go."

And meanwhile Donald Trump
remains unseemly.

This poem © 2016 Emily Cooper.