for Dan Johnson
he was there the way a spider is,
suddenly with you and wanting, oh not
entirely but depending on your nerves,
a swift appraisal
he went to work without whispers even,
shifting the setting so the President
(whose articulation came as a surprise
to many and an irritant to no few)
could live out the meal
the powerful watched our new leader
enter the seraphim'd and scepter'd halls,
catching both hands (in our minds) to his balls
then nodding, sit among the gossips and glads
to the end the taster deflected harm,
switching fork, knife and glass,
nicely covering the country's ass
exemplar of all these sovereign states--
short, bristle-haired, cutting failure's odds
to the look we get, thinking
America, in you we rest
devoted to what we don't know best