Opinion
I work for the president, but like-minded colleagues
and I have vowed to thwart those parts of his agenda
that beg to be thwarted, the non-lodestar parts,
the parts which deliver us to Evil, the parts that
Mother and I feel it is our Sacred Duty to thwart.
Although he was elected as a Republican by God
-fearing Republicans who understand there is no Duty
more Sacred than to slash taxes, eliminate gay marriage,
build a wall and deregulate the regulated—gun
control, health care and all things environmental
(for which only prayer is needed)—he has a screw loose.
His moral compass is facing no lodestar.
And speaking of facts, he does not. In fact,
he veers away from facts
and lodestars. In conclusion,
it’s not the special investigation that looms.
It’s not Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un that doom.
It’s not that the United States is divided.
It’s the veering away from facts and lodestars.
But take heart, America. There are adults in the room,
adults like Mother and me, who, even as we dream
about the moonlight on the Wabash, long for Washington,
not our Indiana homes.
READ MORE
Mike Pence, lodestar and the New York Times op-ed: What we know [Indy Star]
I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration [New York Times]
Mark Williams’s writing has appeared in The Hudson Review, Indiana Review, Rattle, Nimrod, The American Journal of Poetry, Poets Reading the News, New Ohio Review(online) and the anthologies, New Poetry from the Midwestand American Fiction. His poem, “Carrying On,” will appear in The Southern Review this fall. He carries on in Evansville, Indiana.
Photo by Gage Skidmore of Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence, whom Mike calls “Mother.”
