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poetry Reagan's Gift

Tom Karlson is not inhibited by the cliche Do not speak ill of the dead but it's still true that a certain justice of the Supreme Court is still dead.

Reagan’s Gift

By Tom Karlson

someone’s mother said don’t speak ill of the dead

not mine

she said a bastard is a bastard

dead or alive

haven’t you noticed that lying bastards

the Kissingers the Cheneys

never die

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so when Scalia was reported dead

I thought it was a joke, how can this be

then the truth began to stomp and holler

yes he’s gone

now

men and women can marry who they will

women’s bodies belong to the brain attached

nurses can organize

a president will never be selected again by the high court

night and day lovers eulogize this man

who wept tears of legal restraint,

an original

who said I will not legislate from the bench

a mind reader of the dead

who knew what Franklin and Jefferson thought

covering his unrepentant race-class-sex hatred

behind a mumbo-jumbo of legalese

he died under a millionaires  roof

this well travelled hooker

is recused with no more votes to sell

but what will Clarence Thomas do