Guidelines



Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.

Sunday, January 15, 2006

THE PRESIDENT DEFENDS HIS USE OF ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING

by Anne G. Davies


My use of extra-legal surveillance
Has provoked the ire of leftwing assailants.
I’m shocked by the Times’ shameful acts
In widely disseminating covert facts
On how we save our land from terrorist aggression.
They’ve forced me to make a public confession,
To acknowledge activities under the radar
In our zeal to discover who’s trying to aid our
Enemies. I don’t need warrants, I’m Commander-in-Chief
I can do what I want, it’s my constitutional brief.
I suppose I could have worked it out through FISA
But my approach is quicka and nisah.
I don’t need to bother with finicky judges
Who may be literalist legal drudges.
(Cheney will handle librarians who mutiny
At turning over their records to FBI scrutiny)
If you see things differently, you’re not really a sharer
In combating the global war on terror
If you take issue with me, you may well be fated
To have your calls and emails investigated.
For your information: to forestall further crimes
My Justice Department is suing the Times.


Anne G. Davies is a fund-raising writer by profession and a writer and versifier by avocation. Her work has been published on local and regional papers. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.