THE TARIFF

by Philip C. Kolin

Image by Mark Sumner, Daily Kos.


We live in a land of limits;
expanses have been deleted


from the perforated pages of our history.
People way back could breathe more.


Fresh air was not a negotiable item then.
Flags were cleaner, too.


And when the country was crafted,
we rejoiced in different names


to be filled with syllables
from around the world.


Our borders were elastic—
and broad-hearted America stretched beyond


a continent. And into the horizon.
We offered settlers so much


distance. We're shriveling
now into a walled street armory

of tight fists, deficits, and elected misfits
who want to put a tariff


on spacious skies.

Philip C. Kolin is the University Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi where he also edits the Southern Quarterly. He has published more than 40 books on Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, African American playwrights as well as  seven collections of poems. His most recent book  is Emmett Till in Different States: Poems from Third World Press.

THE REPUBLICANS

by Martin Rocek

In Wile E. Coyote reality,
just look straight up if
you run off a cliff,
no need to heed science or gravity.

In Wile E. Coyote reality,
the stork only comes
to eager raped mums,
there's never unwanted gravidity.

In Wile E. Coyote reality,
if you're sick and can't pay
try the Tea Party way:
emergency room hospitality.

In Wile E. Coyote reality,
if God guides your path
there's no use for math,
the deficit's paid by divinity.

In Wile E. Coyote reality,
the poor pay the tax,
the rich just relax
and let Bain take care of their equity.

In Wile E. Coyote reality,
don't bother with truth
--it's a folly of youth--
the facts are a dull technicality.


Martin Rocek teaches and studies theoretical physics at Stony Brook University.