Presidential
Presidential
By Carol Kanter
Should our highest office blunder, fall
on poorer times
for garnering respect–
let alone a mutual cherishing
between citizens and head of state–
fusing bonds or bondage
based on fear and trembling
then the title holder
unschooled in ethics or humanity,
would only know to push
his own agenda, which is to say himself,
assuming, accruing power
and riches to confer on loyals
who kowtow to him,
abhorring any person he considers
“other,” while his own thin skin
barely covers an emptiness
that might inspire our compassion
were he not entrancing
masses plus
parents who raise sons
to emulate, proud when theirs become
the playground bullies out
to strongarm and win at any cost,
parents whose daughters train
to cotton to the ones on top
addicted to a mythic guarantee of Safe.
Until it disappears and it’s too late.
Carol Kanter’s poetry has appeared in over seventy literary journals and
anthologies. FinishingLine Press published her first two chapbooks: “Out of
Southern Africa,” and “Chronicle of Dog.” Peterborough Poetry Project published
her third, “Of Water.” Carol and her photographer husband have paired poems and photographs
from their travels and published them in four coffee-table type books. (See www.DualArtsPress.com.) Her book And Baby Makes Three explores the emotional transitions to parenthood.