Quid Pro Trump O.

It is unknown

where Iraq would ever

have gotten the idea

to ban US citizens

from entering their country. 

Certainly the Iraqi parliamentary panel's

use of the word "reciprocal"

would bring no clues. 

As an incidental fact

it should be noted

that the only families

at risk of being torn apart

are from countries

where the President

has no hotels or golf courses

which is damning

but also in a roundabout way

a transformer of the Trump Organization

into an unwieldy

blunt

and obnoxious tool

for Trump's accidental

and coincidental

and purely self-interested

sense of diplomacy. 

This poem © 2017 Emily Cooper

Through the Truthing Glass

Kellyanne Conway

knows Donald Trump
speaks in lies

and she must knowingly use lies to bolster
the new president's alternate reality

as something the public should accept

by declaring the existence
of "alternative facts"

about the size
of his inauguration attendance.

Stephen Colbert invented the word "truthiness"
on The Colbert Report

during the Bush administration

but has now been outdone
by the Trump administration's authentic use
of real and transparent dishonesty.



This poem © 2017 Emily Cooper

Mandatory Trump Education Lesson 8

Listen Donnie

please note
that after your press conference

the American public
despite what you may think

does care about your tax returns

and we still do not feel assured

that your business interests
will be handled in such a way

as to pose no conflict of interest

with this country's interests

or that Russia
does not have potentially compromising
information about you.

And as much as you dislike
or distrust
or don't want to be bothered

to answer the questions
that CNN is asking you

the soon-to-be leader of the free world

they are not "fake news".


This poem © 2017 Emily Cooper

Mandatory Trump Education Lesson 7

Listen Donnie

in seventeen days

you will be sworn in
and thus become part

of the "swamp"
you promised to drain.

On December 31st
you wished a Happy New Year
to your "many enemies"

and those who "have fought me
and lost so badly
they just don't know what to do."

Given that Carl Bernstein

who was the lawyer
of "enemies list"-maker-
and "not a crook"-Richard Nixon

has called you
a bigger liar than his former client

that should make it
all the more apparent

that the first step
to serving the majority who did not vote for you

who for all our sakes
want you to succeed

is learning that your ignorance of the world
does not make you more honest
when you say something incorrect

and that even these people
are capable of possessing
at least some of the truth.

This poem © 2017 Emily Cooper