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| “‘How do I feel about Trump? I’ll tell you’ he said. He punched up an app and held his phone to display the digits 26, 447.” —"As Suburban Women Turn to Democrats, Many Suburban Men Stand With Trump," The New York Times October 13, 2018 |
He notes a murder in another zone,
unwraps his turkey sandwich, smiles
at the Dow rising on his phone.
He eats his lunch in his car alone,
this ancestor of SUVs and wiles.
His thumbs flick: murder, bone
saws, Kavenaugh, He grins.
He won that round. Meanwhile
the Dow is rising on his phone
like pride’s origin. Damn right he’s done
well by his kids and wife. The dead guy’s
only some hack for the Washington Post.
The words that Moses wrote on stone,
are numbers he no longer dials,
replaced by the Dow Jones.
Before the apple, there was testosterone
and oil. The price of crude is undefiled
by fingers severed at the knuckle bone,
and the Dow is rising on his phone.
Katherine Smith’s publications include appearances in Poetry, Cincinnati Review, Missouri Review, Ploughshares, Southern Review, and many other journals. Her short fiction has appeared in Fiction International and Gargoyle. Her first book Argument by Design (Washington Writers’ Publishing House) appeared in 2003. Her second book of poems Woman Alone on the Mountain (Iris Press), appeared in 2014. She teaches at Montgomery College in Maryland.