Honestly now! Another White House scandal—
Denied at every level. Can’t they at least
Skip the sincerity? Nope (says the analyst),
That fair flag of the land’ll

Flap long and loud from its pole. It’s our democratic
Need to Come Clean, unfurling above the latest
Infrastructure framed by a mad elitist
To keep his realm secure and his facts hermetic

—As I well know. Glass-eyed or beheaded, dressed
In dust, forms exiled to the poem’s attic
Wake at my passing candle.
Stick to the parlor, Reader, where it’s brightest,

Though even here—! Foul drafts and dragging feet
Haunt this house once white as a blank sheet.

This Issue

November 5, 1998