Know thyself

The heroism Trump claims for his own
in Florida, protecting innocent
school-children's nothing that he's ever shown
before, or in his time as president.
A guy who leaves his wife out in the rain
and shuns the guest who's bleeding on his floor
now claims he'd rush the perp like G.I. Jane
but swoons if anyone should mention gore.
He trusts that few perceive the void within
while selling them the candidate he ain't.
As shallow as his orange-tinted skin
achieved by crushing Cheetohs into paint.
No self-reflection mars Trump's sleep at night;
he brings no competence, and less insight

pay not attention to the tan behind the curtain

The thatch befitting an orangutan
bizarrely grafted onto Donald's head
as artificial as the spray-can tan
morticians use to 'juvenate the dead
took flight as he embarked on AirForce One.
It wasn't engineered for such a test
a golfer's 'do, to amble, not to run
transforms to an abandoned raven's nest.
The bald-spot that he hides beneath that mop,
winks pinkly from a million TV screens
third buttock, brandished cockily  on top
what ought to be concealed within his jeans.
Potempkin coiffure, ginned up for the Press
pretends it's more, but all can see, it's less.

I try like Hell to hide that bald spot

A glimpse of candor, with that flash of pate
as Trump embarked on wind-swept AirForceOne
belies his fervent claim that his hair's great,
deflating pompadour so stiffly done.
The trademarked orange tonsure Bozo claimed
can be repurposed--for a license fee.
Orangutanish mop, by hairspray tamed,
that had been clownish, now's just parody.
A fragile ego, tied to thinning hair
and sycophants won't speak an honest word.
His Chief of Staff would have to grow a pair
to tell his boss that bouffant's so absurd.
A more secure man'd learn to wear a hat;
no sleight of comb can dignify this brat.

Ki Tissa

The "sound of battle" Joshua relates
is something like a carnival below.
The efforts building mishkan consecrates,
unchanneled, find another way to flow.
The bulls that gleamed in Jeroboam's cult
enticed some worshippers to skip the trek.
A staid decor, more fit for an adult,
sufficed to satisfy the Temple's spec.
Had Jeroboam known this piece of text,
he'd never have reprised this cultic crime.
Strange worship Torah utterly rejects,
is not the way to launch a rival shrine.
Whatever Aaron wrought on our behalf
in retrospect, must not have been a calf.

sow's ear

A presidency's arc in rhyming verse
sweet presentation, 'though the content's gall.
Obama's exit changed us for the worse;
Trump seems Hell-bent on our republic's fall.
The Checks and Balances our Framers wrought
collapse when Congress shirks its proper role;
when donors dictate to the pawns they've bought
It's dollars, not the People, in control.
Each week, his language skills degenerate;
where others focus, he spews verbal hash.
A manichean world, all "bad" or "great"
excludes all values neither "gold" nor "trash".
I might as well write sonnets to the moon;
Trump's deaf to what's not pitched in a cartoon.

collusion

Prigozhin's army bleeds in the Levant
'though Putin swears he has no ground troops there.
A mercenary force does what he can't
disposable pawns to the Russian bear.
The hunter's now the prey in Mueller's hunt
for calumnies, if not for bombs and gore,
and opening a third election front
to orchestrate the propaganda war.
The shadow-arm of KGB control
thrust deep in Internet communities
to cloak that he's a hostile foreign troll
must steal Americans' identities.
In Syria, or Akron, or Duluth,
the Kremlin's cook's at war with simple Truth.

Second time as farce II

His lawyer might seek Use-Immunity
to testify to what he'd helped Trump do.
Without the candor or acuity,
John Dean's reprised as Cohen's shyster Jew.

Like magic waters of the river Styx,
he'll immunize himself against reproach.
The echoes of Dick Nixon's DirtyTricks
that had been tragic, this time play as jokes.
The precedent is rarely quite precise,
the fair-haired boy now bears the mohel's mark.

Another roll of history's grim dice,
if this be farce, it's getting mighty dark.

Confronted with Trump's record of HighCrime,
we'll settle for mere Pence. And it's high time.