I'm a poet and teacher living in Iowa City, where I've been hired by our local paper, the
Iowa Press-Citizen, to write a regular piece for the opinion page. The idea presented to me was to do something like what Calvin Trillin does for the
Nation with his "deadline poetry" series (but without Trillin's hefty syndication fee).
I've been posting them here at Kos for your poetastin' pleasure. This one is more pissed off than the others. I had been reading a right wing blog before I wrote this to sort of rev me up. I guess they're good for something. Anyway, below the fold you'll find "A Mirror for the Far Right." Enjoy!
A Mirror for the Far Right
For the far right, it's all the same:
Whether Republican or Taliban,
They wage a politics of shame
And intolerance, rather than
Dialogue. Who needs debate
With a personal pipeline to God
For policy and deeds of State?
Both believe to spare the rod
Spoils a nation, that science
Is a hoax, unsanctioned love a sin,
And that absolute reliance
On your leader (Bush, Bin Ladin)
Is how you wage war and politics.
Both believe a woman's place is in
The home and the antics
Of secularism are a heathen din.
Both love capital punishment
And capital gains from oil.
Use violence as an instrument
For profit, while the rest toil.
And who's gonna stop these bums
as their political opponents plod
Ineptly along? Both control the guns.
God help us. But not that God.