after the song of the same name by Oscar Brown, Jr.
Sisters Africa and Maggie Brown, daughters of Oscar Brown Jr. who wrote the song "The Snake,” criticize President Trump for using it as an anti-immigration reference during rallies.
“The Snake”: Donald T***p brings back his favorite
anti-immigrant fable at CPAC —CNN, February 23, 2018
With her remote control one evening flipping past commercial breaks,
a media-driven nation saw a narcissistic snake.
His orange colored hair had been all sprayed back with some goo.
"Oh, wow," she laughed, "I'll take you in, and I'll watch what you do."
Taken in, Media nation.
Taken in, for heaven's sake.
Taken in, Media nation, by a snake.
She watched him on her TV in her jammies and her quilt,
giving him high ratings, his land of honey and of milk.
Then hurrying home to couch one night to giggle and to gasp,
she found the orange snake she'd taken to was in command.
Taken in, Media nation.
Taken in, for heaven's sake.
Taken in, Media nation, by a snake.
She shrieked and clutched her bosom, "You were spectacle," she moaned,
"and if I hadn't brought you in, by now you would be gone."
She picked up her remote, and then she gripped it tight.
The orange head came up and out for a narcissistic strike.
Taken in, media nation.
Taken in, for heaven's sake.
Taken in, media nation, by a snake.
"But I watched you," whined the nation, “and you've poisoned me and mine—
“guns, banks, oil, insurance companies, and white nationalism poised to thrive."
"I hear you, fake-news nation," said the reptile, from his notes.
"You knew damn well I was a snake before all those tremendous votes.”
Taken in, media nation.
Taken in, for heaven's sake.
Taken in, media nation, by a snake.
Ana Garza G'z has an M. F. A. from California State University, Fresno, where she teaches part-time. Sixty-five of her poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies, most recently in Unmasked: Women Write About Sex and Intimacy After Fifty. She also works as an interpreter and translator.