Kill the President

Part 2

The pink glow of dawn lights the Rose Garden lawn
and streams through the Rumpus Room curtain.
The President seems to be lost in a dream
and his reveries seem in his Time magazine ...
though with Irving it's hard to be certain.

It's really unnerving how President Irving
Lumwedder, for what seems like ages,
the mighty Commander-in-Chief of the land,
with Time on his hands and countenance bland
is staring at one of the pages.

It isn't the "Re-views", the US or World News
that captures the Head of the Nation;
not the Op-Ed, nor Features, nor beautiful creatures
on advertisement beaches, nor one of his speeches
that holds him in rapt fascination.

"Well, dang me!" he mutters, his spirit now flutters
as he stares in a manner approving.
(Let the critics repent of their hearts made of flint,
for his eyes fairly squint at a page of hard print –
not cartoons.) "Dang! These guys are moving"

For the first time, Lumwedder has noticed the letters
and numbers alive on the page.
A K kicks a goal over H, and the hole
of an O is a bowl of Froot Loops, or bread roll,
or a ring – and thus he's engaged

for five or ten minutes – he's quite lost within it,
abandoned to truths newly seen.
"A fairground of letters!" laughs Irving Lumwedder,
"Why, hell, this is better than TV – much better!
And it's all in this Time magazine."

The Prez asks himself "Does it work somewhere else?
Or only in Time magazine?
Let's see? What's this book? Hmmm ... 'I'm Not a Crook'.
OK, let's take a look, it might work in this b –– "
"Meester President, do you want me to clean?"

"Oh shit! I mean ... sure. Didn't hear the door!"
"Ees OK sir, I do it manana."
"No, come in, Maria. Now listen, see here,
do you see this, Maria? Do the letters seem queer?"
"No sir. Aiiyy! You sit in banana?!"

"Goddang it, I'm sorry." "Ees OK, no worry.
And the Froot Loops, you finished them, si?"
"Yes, thank you my dear. But listen, Maria,
just look over here. Do you see something queer?"
"In the White House I never queer see."

Says the President "I see" and Maria says "Si,
I see." "You do see?" "See ... sometheeng in it?"
"Si, Maria, see?" "No sir, I no see."
"Maria, I say 'see', not say 'si'" "Si, sir, si ... I no see."
... And so on for several minutes.