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| Cartoon by Steve Sack, Star-Tribune, August 31, 2016 |
"Wednesday gave Donald Trump the best of both worlds; a priceless photo-op with a foreign leader and maximum attention on his firebrand immigration message."—Jake Novak, senior columnist for CNBC, September 1, 2016.
The man on the mountaintop
spews lies, misinformation, intolerance
a nefarious Rumpelstiltskin
he spins bigotry and bullying into gold
his cheering minions listen,
eyes wide open, palms itching for more
believers who think his poison is truth
his empty promises a balm for all their ails
a fix for all the ways that life has failed them
they cheer him on, flanked by the media who know better,
the ones who give him a bully pulpit under the guise of objectivity
who dance with the devil to sell air time, ad space
as they profit from the hate they feign to shun
Mary Saracino is a novelist, poet, and memoir writer who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her most recent novel is Heretics: A Love Story (Pearlsong Press, 2014). Her novel The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press, 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. She is the co-editor (with Mary Beth Moser) of She Is Everywhere! Volume 3: An anthology of writings in womanist/feminist spirituality (iUniverse 2012). Mary’s poetry and stories (creative nonfiction and fiction) have been widely published in a variety of literary and cultural journals and anthologies, both online and in print.