Why must parenting

require endless patience

or, at least, a tone deaf ear?

~

Why ask your mother?

Think back on your growing-up

years. Isn’t the answer clear?

Without ideas

or even a clue, he tweets

from his nonexistent heart.

~

A situation

far from ideal, this faithless,

heartless, witless, twit leader.

Sometimes life trumps art,

but more often art exceeds

life’s mundane limitations.

~

To live in a way

that transforms limitations

is itself fine art.

Sometimes we throw words

together in a hurry

and make lousy poems.

~

… and sometimes the words

can string themselves together

absent a coherent thought.

Aren’t we all guilty;

viewing Congress with contempt

and the Oval Office too?

~

Those institutions

are not the source of contempt,

but some occupants stoke it.

Petulant bullies;

are these fitting exemplars

of American statesmen?

~

Those who are skillful,

experienced, and wise are

few but represent us best.

The vultures left to

feed on other flesh, leaving 

behind a rack of bare ribs.

~

Their feast concluded,

those insatiable vultures,

where shall they find their next meal?

Was it his last joke;

this mountain of documents,

some dating back sixty years?

~

Documented jokes

 weigh survivors down, but when

  laughter dies they’re still standing.

When tweeting and golf

take up so much time, how can

he be asked to govern too?

~

Maybe that’s why

his administration plays

so many strokes over par.