by Bruce Bennett
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| “Since when do Republicans care more about criminals in jail than the cops who put them there? Since when do they coddle domestic terrorists? Since Donald T***p. A new report in The Daily Beast shows how the fish rots from the big orange head.” —Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, July 31, 2021 |
How many hurt? How many dead?
How many at that rotten core?
The fish rots from the big orange head.
How many let themselves be led
by what they rightly should abhor?
How many hurt? How many dead?
What was it that he did and said?
What is it that they now ignore?
The fish rots from the big orange head.
Who should have been in jail instead
of causing riots most deplore?
How many hurt? How many dead?
How long are we to suffer dread
as he pursues his sick, sick war?
The fish rots from the big orange head
Whose stink continues still to spread
through regions none can now restore.
How many hurt? How many dead?
The fish rots from the big orange head!
Bruce Bennett is the author of ten books of poetry and more than thirty poetry chapbooks. His most recent full-length book is Just Another Day in Just Our Town: Poems New and Selected, 2000-2016 (Orchises Press, 2017). He was a co-founder and served as an editor of the literary journals Field and Ploughshares. From 1973 until his retirement in 2014, he taught Literature and Creative Writing at Wells College, and is now Emeritus Professor of English. In 2012 he was awarded a Pushcart Prize.