Poets' Corner: The President and I

it's just that

well, it's just that when

I see him

on television

or hear him on the radio

I hear myself shouting, angry

at the helpless box

as if it could keep him from lying

as if it were the one

who takes me for such a fool

I might dream that I am there

in the great cheering crowd

that I might stride down the aisle

grab the microphone

tell them the truth

that I might burst into

the oval office

grab him by his blue silk tie

shake him until his little flag pin

falls off his lapel

but here in my study

I can only see the shelves

of books he has never read

poems he would not understand

pictures of children

he does not know