Misplaced Maverickism

Welcome back to the Senate
John McCain.

You gave the deciding vote
to advance a bill
that even with major changes

will deprive millions of people
of their health insurance.

In your speech
you said some good words

calling for bipartisan cooperation

and saying you would not vote
for the "shell of a bill"
in its current form.

But even your proposed amendments
will sooner or later
leave working Americans at the mercy
of their bank accounts

when deciding how much life-saving treatment
they can afford.

If you still have principles
like you used to

pretty soon would be
an excellent time
to use them.



This poem © 2017 Emily Cooper.

Live and Let Fail

Dear Donald Trump

knowing who you are
and what you are stand for

by far the best thing you can do
to ensure quality health coverage
for millions of Americans

is to encourage Republicans
to "let Obamacare fail."

You'll be waiting
for a while

and in the end
you can forget what happened

praise yourself
and blame Obama

for what you did
and what he didn't. 


This poem © 2017 Emily Cooper.

All in the Family

How can you tell
when your little ones
are all grown up?

Maybe it's when your daughter
sits in your place
at the G20 Summit

or when your son
is contacted by one of your former business partners
bearing information he received
from a Russian government official

and in response
enthusiastically agrees to meet with
Kremlin-connected lawyer
Natalia Veselnitskaya

and to bring with him
your then-campaign manager Paul Manafort
and your current-son-in-law Jared Kushner

in order to do his darndest
to scrounge up
from an enemy government
whatever dirt he can
about your political opponent.

Meanwhile another son
is embarking on his own path

by Tweeting that Democrats
are "not even people"

and being the proud owner
of a foundation
that has funneled donations

from contributors
who believed they were
helping kids with cancer

to organizations
with ties to the Trump family.

And your other son
is playing with relatable fidget spinners

and is too small right now
to do much of anything
but worry about Kathy Griffin

but who thankfully nonetheless
is continuously learning appropriate behavior
from you.


This poem © 2017 Emily Cooper.