Kill the President

Part 7

Two forty-five and the garden's alive
with the hum and the buzz of the press:
CNN, NBC, Business Week and AP,
Asia Times, ABC, Melbourne Age, MTV,
Reuters Deutschland, Tulsa World, CBS.

Yes, the whole box and dice of the whole Fox, and nice
to see independent media represented:
there's a journal Murdoch's tried to buy out for Fox,
but this boy on the box has hung onto his stocks.
Every takeover bid 'Kids' has prevented.

'Kids' is a monthly, the Brinkley and Huntley,
the Woodward and Bernstein, Fallaci,
the Peter Arnett of the under-12 set,
and there never was yet journalistic cadet
like Tim, tip-toes 'neath the press glitterati.

In back of the podium Irving's in odium,
being held in opprobrium by the speechwriting crew.
"Four minutes to three, where the hell can he be?"
says Dan "How can we write a speech when all he
does is glance for a minute or two?

"And we had to toil on a speech about soil!
What more can he do to unnerve us?"
The other speech guys all agree with Dan Wright,
"There he is!" says Chuck Fleiss, "Jeezus, so many spies."
(Their affectionate name for "the Service".)

"My God, look at that!" chuckles Chuck, "Check the hat!
The Chief is a damn Cherokee."
"No, Chuck," chuckles Dan, "I'm sure it's Cheyenne."
Then a Secret Service man, who's been listening, says "Man,
you crew is crazy. That head dress is Cree."

"Who cares if it's Pawnee, Kickapoo or damn Shawnee."
Dan's fuming: "If he thinks that he's Tonto ––"
With earphone in ear Agent Graham appears,
and looking severe: "Wright! Fleiss! Over here!
The Chief wants the soil speech – and pronto!"

"Hey, don't get uptight," says speechwriter Wright,
"He's mounting the podium, man.
Too late for it now, so don't have a cow ...
look, he's taking a bow. He's starting to speak now.
Let's go hear the Great Man," says Dan.

To be continued