8 November 2016 - The Second Vulture

Squirming and squirming in the brightening glare,
The public hears an executioner;
They’re not sure who; the center is long gone;
Extremism is loose like Genghis Khan;
The best are unconvinced, although the worst
Say that they are on balance unconvicted.

I think there’s something scary going on.
I think there’s an election going on!
Election! I have hardly said the word
When an old cartoon produced by Thomas Nast
Comes to my mind: A fat malignant vulture,
Born wealthy and still thinking of itself,
Is brooding its cash eggs, while all around it
Details are indistinct. I have to think
That eight fair years of cautious governance
Have blocked no nightmare snakes from vexing us,
And which tough leech, their power come home to roost,
Crouches over Washington like a storm?