Political poems

For my haiku group we were to bring in some of our political haiku/senryu. "Political" was defined as including not just actual elections or candidates, but also social issues subject to political debate.

Here are the ones I brought:

steady cold rain
election results
come trickling in

blood on the pavement
mother distracts child
with an old folk song

searcher hesitates
beneath the rubble
an overturned crib

outside the clinic
unmothered mothers slowly
walk to waiting cars

crow on a bare branch
outside the clinic
car door slams

walking in the woods
noticing all the mushrooms -
August 6

a break in the clouds
gave way to that sunrise –
Nagasaki

the morning prayers
rose heavenward that day –
Nagasaki

at Hiroshima
some dead left memorials
shadows on the wall

I've written other political poems that more directly focus on candidates, primarily poems in the clerihew format. I say "clerihew format" because they are not true clerihews. They lack the silliness, the whimsy that true clerihews have, and are much more polemical and satirical than true clerihews should be.

Some come closer to the form.

Assistant Coach Tim Walz
was enjoying some spaghetti and meatballs,
but then got a sick feeling in his belly
when an ad for tampons came on the telly.

Bernie Sanders
gets uneasy whenever he spots chameleons and salamanders.
He yells and waves his hands above his head
because he knows if they get near him they'll turn red.

Chris Cuomo
hates to be called "Fredo."
Still, he turns down Andy's offers to take
him fishing out on a lake.

Vermin Supreme
awoke from a bad dream.
In it, Democratic candidates at a joint ceremony
promised everyone a free pony.

Some of the others just don't make it as true clerihews.

Donald Trump
on the stump
will almost always spout a platitude
or something rude.

The eyes of former Vice President Biden
suddenly began to widen.
"Wait, you mean now that they say I've won,
people actually expect me to get something done???"

Former Vice President Joe Biden
is content to let gender definitions widen.
He has himself long used the trick
of identifying as a devout Roman Catholic.


Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory
says, "Communion for cafeteria Catholic Biden is fine by me.
After all, I always try to enable
whenever I am able."

Former Vice President Joe Biden
watches Ukraine, the border, inflation, and his poll numbers slidin'.
With so much at stake
it's time for an ice cream break.

Former Vice President Joe Biden
caused some Royal eyes to widen.
His press people sighed, for from the start,
they've been battling accusations he's just an old fart.

Each encounter with Joe Biden
reveals what his handlers have been hidin':
Beneath that thinning hair,
there's less and less there there.

Good Jimmy Carter,
when it comes to presidents was one of the smarter.
Historians rank his presidency pretty low,
but it’s looking better these days thanks to “Scranton Joe.”

I don't know if J.D. Vance
has ever been to France,
but unlike Walz he doesn't lack
service to the nation in Iraq.

New York AG Letitia James
targeted Trump with legal games.
We might just see her smirking less
now that she faces her own legal mess.

Attorney General Letitia James
is fond of playing games.
Her latest was attending a trial and practicing her smirk
instead of showing up at the office to work.

Fani Willis
used Nathan Wade for some carnal bliss,
What drew him to her is not plain to see;
perhaps money and the odor of mendacity?

Fani Willis
with Nathan Wade sought illicit bliss.
Part of her appeal may have been her capacity
for mendacity.
.
Elizabeth Warren
campaigned in the restaurant of a Salvadoran.
When she tasted a pupusa she said,
"Why, this is just like my mother's Cherokee fry bread."

Senator Cory Booker
is more than a side-looker.
After all, as he told us,
he is Spartacus.

Ben Carson
has never been accused of committing arson.
That didn't stop Politico
from saying, "He may have, you know."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
set out to find a living dodo.
The closest he came, in the end,
were a couple of hosts at CNN.

I have a number of other political alleged clerihews, but they are so bad - given some of the ones I posted above you get an idea how bad they are - they are fit only for Twitter (X). But since I don't have a Twitter account, I'll spare the public and not post them!

Pax et bonum