Trump Tower
By Marvin Lurie
I left the truth on the sidewalk
when I went into the tall office building.
It was on wheels but heavy.
I couldn’t take it to an upper floor
even on the freight elevator.
And it might not get past the metal detectors
in the lobby.
I hoped no one would take it.
When I came out,
people were walking around it,
trying not to look.
Marvin Lurie is retired from a career as a trade press editor, president of an association management and consulting firm, and senior executive in an international trade association. He began writing poetry as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. In 1998, anticipating retirement and with the desire to reinvest time and effort writing poetry, he took several week-long and shorter poetry workshops taught by established poets and started over. He and his wife moved to Portland, Oregon in 2003 where he has been an active member of the local poetry community including service on the board of directors of the Oregon Poetry Association for two terms, as an almost perpetual poetry student at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters in Portland and as a participant in several critique groups. Visit his website at marvlurie.com.
The Demagogue
by Cyrus Parker
he stood atop
the fifty-eight story building,
built on the backs
of the very same people
he had spent sixteen months
scapegoating,
and looked on
as his new America
ripped out the very
foundation
of what had made it great
in the first place.
Cyrus Parker is a New Jersey-based poet, originally from Michigan, where he had spent four years wrestling on the local independent wrestling circuit. On a hiatus from the squared circle, Cyrus is taking the time to pursue his other passion—writing. A creative writing major at Brookdale Community College, Cyrus’ work has been published in the college’s annual literary magazine, Collage, and he is currently revising his first poetry collection, DROPKICKpoetry, which he hopes to release sometime in 2017.
Photo credit: Brad via a Creative Commons license.
The first poem is a perfect example of how to write about contemporary events in a haunting, resonating manner. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of futile horror and apathetic submission that is the mood of Trump’s America. The central metaphor serves to drive home the revolutionary message and chilling imagery of the poem. The speaker notes that he cannot take it past the first floor- an indication perhaps that those who value the truth cannot climb the social hierarchy, a scathing indictment of T@#mp’s dishonesty.