"Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani's supposedly radical policies as 'normal'" —The Guardian, November 6, 2025
It's Communist, beyond the pale
Of all our freedom-loving norms,
To look at European forms
So goshdarned guaranteed to fail.
Free healthcare? Transport? Daycare, too?
We ain't about to spring for those,
Since everybody 'round here knows
They can't succeed--oh wait, they do?
Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, The Dirigible Balloon, Light, Lighten Up Online, The Lyric, New Verse News, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Philosophy Now, The Pierian, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, Snakeskin, and Well Read. His collections I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) (2023) and Home at Last (2025) are published by Kelsay Books.