1
Whodathunk? Today
we saw a white deer (odds: one
in thirty thousand)—
and also cows and
Jeffrey Epstein memes and a
broken Buddha. Junk
is what this country
loves. Junk and shotguns. White beer
and whiter gods. Plus
blameless distraction
(Epstein on my screen) and streams
of actual blood.
2
It’s night here now in
the Hudson Valley: clouds swim
low. A life of so-
called sober virtue
doesn’t preclude a drunk fare-
well. Take it from Trump:
Jeff was a good hang!
“Terrific guy. He’s a lot
of fun to be with.
It’s even said that
he likes beautiful women
as much as I do.”
3
Here’s how to tell a
joke: weave in a bit of word-
play. Include a monk.
Say “I’ve got your [fill
in the blank] right here, mister.”
Then shame the laugher.
Shame the whole half-gone
country. Fetishists of mud,
of manacles, of
misremembered might,
shame them, shame us, shame us all.
In sum: Not a fan.
________
Cody Walker’s most recent poetry collection, The Trumpiad, was published by Waywiser in 2017. (The book doubles as an ACLU fundraiser.) He’s also the author of two earlier collections: The Self-Styled No-Child (Waywiser, 2016) and Shuffle and Breakdown (Waywiser, 2008). He lives in Ann Arbor.
________
