Poetry

NEX6ki

By

Elisabeth Horan

If Dana Milbank knows

If Dana Milbank knows what is going on with Trump (Hiel!) that means we will be safe. Because Dana Milbank would never let it happen that our world would be ruined (Russia) and Cokie Roberts would never allow Confederate soldiers (Deep South_) and white supremacists (Duke_) to come to her house with a burning cross (Sessions_) and Jack Spear would not be able to say the words we are in a civil war: (NRA_) white against black (men in blue_ / men in hoodies_) men against women (grab their pussies_) rich against poor (Koch_ / student loans_) disabled against able (reporter_ taunted by asshole).

But if Robert Siegel can go on air and recite the words that these bad things are happening (racism_) then they are indeed happening (sexism_) then I know he’ll fix it because he is so smart (educated_) and I am just a mom at home with a tinny rabble of NPR in my ear (rural decay_) that says – This SHIT is happening, and it sucks, and it’s a kick in the ass every day in America right now but Robert Siegel never uses the words Kick in the ass (white trash_) he has to be fair and impartial (lefty_) but he won’t let the world be ruined, I know it he is too smart for that – right everyone (the 99%_)?

So when is he going to go to Trump’s (Mar-a-Lago_) to interview him with his microphone (cord_) so when is Cokie going to sneak up behind Trump and pull a fast one on him (Jeff Gillooly_)… so when is Dana Milbank going to invite Trump for a ride (car trunk_) across the Beltway to a marsh (sink beneath the reeds_) while the ducks go quacking into the sky…(hole in the ozone_ sorry polar bears).

Look How

Look how I start out so very precise –

Octopus wonders why we eat him

when the suction cups he wears for pants

are more useful to him

Sea creature thinking

I’m going extinct

I’m a miracle of science

caught in a net

just a shark with no limbs

Sinking fast

my bulbous head unable

to grasp – why

Decapitated from

my succulent limbs I ponder

why on earth they eat my

Pants over and over again when the

suction cups

are so amazing for science

No time worry about the shark

he is falling so much faster

Heaven reaches out – superfluid

the ocean floor – in ruin

so too my eulogy

I speak in plagues

Then look how I end up so goddamn vague.

Elisabeth Horan

Elisabeth Horan is a stay at home mom in Vermont, caring for her two young boys and looking out for the animals. Her goal as a writer is to bring attention to issues that she cares about and has dealt with personally: mental illness, abuse, the plight of nature and the environment, and those suffering in isolation and in pain.

She has recently been featured at Anti-Heroin Chic, Swimming With Elephants and Red Dashboard Publications. More poetry is forthcoming at Quail Bell Magazine, Dying Dahlia Review, Murmur House and Vox Poetica.

Elisabeth is a 2018 MFA Candidate at Lindenwood and teaches at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire.

Follow her @ehoranpoet.