Drawing by Susan C. Price
Hindsight
By Eric Meub
Hindsight
By Eric Meub
Assuming we survive the present age,
What will the story look like on the page?
How will our failures and successes rate?
What will they say about our head of state?
He loves his Base, his Rallies, his Red Hats,
But loathes the Washington Aristocrats.
He hugs the Flag (the oftener the better),
Then feeds the Constitution to the shredder.
He curbs Amendments and the Bill of Rights—
Except as they apply to Guns and Whites—
Denies his every Statement, makes up Facts,
And guards like chastity his Income Tax.
He styles himself a Populist, yet spends
Less time on Policy than Fox and Friends,
And tweets relentlessly: this is no Bird
That God has taught or Audubon has heard.
Has he a God? The Holy Name is Me,
Who has no patience for Propriety,
Surviving trails of Scandals, Sex, and Sin
(But letting Jests get underneath his skin).
Alas, will there be Interest anymore
In decent Presidents who came before,
While Number Forty-Five is being sued
For Avarice or sheer Ineptitude?
Will better Angels finally break free
And resurrect Respectability,
Or will our future Candidates be worse,
Perfecting what our own could but rehearse?
Today we’re still upon a downward trend
That feels like the beginning of the end,
With shock and horror everywhere we look.
But I can’t wait to read it in a book.
| Copyright © 2019 by Susan C. Price & Eric Meub Eric Meub, architect, lives and practices in Pasadena, the adopted brother of the artist, Susan C. Price. They respect, in their different ways, the line. |
Eric, that was the greatest protest poem I've heard since the sixties. Bob Dylan in his heyday didn't do any better.
ReplyDeleteEric, if Ed's right about your having just topped Bob Dylan, do you think Bob might therefore be unable to refuse to adopt your lyric for an album he might presumably be planning? Or a concert?
ReplyDeleteOr, perhaps even better (in some ways): you borrow an electric (or acoustic) guitar and put your lyrics to song yourself. Susan & Ed & I could bang on something for percussives. And Roger Owens might join you with a second guitar. And maybe we could bring back Scarlet Rivera to play the violin? (I fell musically quite head & heels for her when I viewed Scorsese's latest film about Dylan, Rolling Thunder Review.)
As to a presumed new album by Bob Dylan, Ed has informed me that "The last interview that I heard Bob do he said he wasn't doing any new songs, and he doesn't know how he was able to do all the ones he did."
Just hum a few bars, I can fake it man...
ReplyDeleteHats off to a descepibly humming, sarcastic political dispach with perfect aim.
ReplyDelete