Poetry

Samantha Sophia

By

Alejandro Escudé

Sportspalast

Funny how they let the jokes go—

The one about if Tom Price doesn’t do a good job,

He’ll fire him. Funny how they let the brutality endorsement go,

The one about an officer not needing to protect a person’s head

As they’re put in a police car. 

Funny how they let the sexist quips go,

The one about the French First Lady being in “good shape.”

Funny how no one ever let go of anything I said. I worked at a job

Where I calmly retorted after a rude request and I was shown the door.

I was employed where the big bosses remembered a smirk, a laugh,

An inflated fact, or a terse tone. Have you been spared?

Would the President spare you? The President grows batwings.

He hangs upside down inside the cave of history. 

Are you allowed to hang upside down beneath the bridge 

Near your own workplace? Are you allowed to praise a competitor

While compromising your own company?

The President gazes at women dancing in long, flowing white gowns.

They circle around and around as a crowd looks on with speckled eyes.

A giant, stone eagle, rows and rows of uniforms, rows and rows.

Alejandro Escudé

Alejandro Escudé’s first book of poems, My Earthbound Eye, was published in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.