Pseudo-Petrarchan Sonnet on a President

Is a Wish Away from Being a King

I’ll tell you what’s     what’s an official act an
Official act is sure     if maybe sure
Maybe I kill a guy     if I deter
-mine he’s a threat to the country it’s a fact
Now     killing bad guys isn’t an exact
Science believe me     folks I wish it were
But wishes are for history to bur
-den with the consequences of bold action

That’s in a draft of the Project Twenty Twenty
-Five plan book thing Steve     said it was he says
It means it doesn’t matter why I do
Anything     what I do what matters is
I win now     Steve’s a smart guy     he knows plenty
It’s a good plan     I think it’s coming true

Elizabethan Sonnet on Violating the Flag Code 

How much are we supposed to take the guy in
His yard he had     a sign it said Fuck Trump
And so my wife complained she     wasn’t whining
But it was like the guy just took a dump
In the middle of our neighborhood just right
There in the street     just took a shit his yard
The street whatever     anyway that might
Have been the end of it but she was scarred
My wife by the     foul mouth on this guy fucking
Filthy the things he said to her I’ll tell
You what that guy is lucky     very lucky
I wasn’t there      say Fuck Trump then     they’re all
Cowards you hang     it upside-down when you
Fear for your life     the flag says Fuck you too

Elizabethan Sonnet on from 2004 to 2023

Clarence Thomas Received $4 Million in Gifts

I made as much I almost made as much
Four million on the side as I got paid
Let myself down there     should’ve made as much
Made more you     either play or you get played
Why should I save a rich man’s life for free
I mean it’s that’s     it isn’t it the game
Their money or your life     black folks are free
As scraps of paper     curling in a flame

You only need a breeze and you will fly
God makes the breeze to blow     or you get burned
Friend     but it’s not God’s fault if you don’t fly
What if I hadn’t hustled     hadn’t learned
From wealthy men     those men affirm my power
You don’t have power if no one buys your power

Blank Verse Sonnet Concluded

by a Pure Rhyme and an Impure Rhyme 

What happens when I win is what the movie
Said happens what the video okay
Said The     Creation of a Unified
Reich
 that’s what happens what     does that mean reich
It’s German they have done     tremendous things
That’s all it means     it’s German like the Ger
-man word     for country we are gonna be
One country you America you know
You know     what one means one means no more jobs
Will go to immigrants one means our troops will
Clean up the border unified that’s one
You hear it     one in the un one country un
Country I win one reich a thousand years
From now they won’t believe what happened here

Petrarchan Sonnet on the Electrified Sea

Picture a boat     whatever boat a yacht
Okay real big     don’t picture a canoe
No two     -man fishing boat the     sky is blue
Beautiful day     no clouds     and it’s just hot
Enough you’re shirtless on the deck     you’ve got
A Diet Coke on the table next to you
Sweating     the can looks beautiful a new
One and the pretty     stewardess right brought
It smiling you’re about to drink it     but
The yacht is green folks     powered by a bat
-tery a huge one     and it sinks     now what
’Cause there’s a shark too sharks like sun too that
Shark’s tan lean hungry you    get eaten or
Get fried    who’s left to save the planet for.

Building and Farther Plume Seen from a Train

The plume as tall as taller than the building
How far a mile     apart each     each or now
I’m passing them I’m closer now they might be
Three miles apart     the building from the plume
The plume distinct because it is a building
Flying     it is a cloud refusing sleep
Most of its body     from the base up till
The head assents     and sways     and drifts away
Plume of waste seen     from the train but from the train
From farther off the plume had seemed to rise
Beside the building and I had to guess
The mile but as I passed was     watching passed
They stepped themselves unchanged apart     the space
Between them changed the angle of the plume’s
Head I could see it     better tilted more
Dramatically away than I had thought
As if against the wishes of its body
The head would lie back down on     the earth would dream
That had once been a part of the earth     before
Being ground to bits or pounded flat or shredded
Then burned     then burned     then burned     because no soul
Escapes     the smoke is not a soul escaping
I do not see souls flashing in the smoke
But even so     I see the physical
Beauty of the plume     of waste the dreaming head
Reclining yet reclining     to become
More cloud     but whiter than a cloud     soft wind
Brushing away a mesa made of sugar
Sky shining through the feathered edges     sugar
Bleached white with bone char white as bone can bleach it

The Hero of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

A misthios was all I ever wanted
Not to be     am I dream     the money’s in
       A box in the clouds but     wait was tin
Cheap while I lived     the money’s clean     not haunted

In a tin box      hung from a bronze chain nailed
With a gold nail     to the clouds     I climb a match
       -stick ladder to my roof and watch
For the gold nail to freeze and snap in the cold

And dreams to fall from the sky     I kill enough
Wild goats     the eagle I command falls aw
       -ful on the next     and on his claw
I see the blood     I see the cloud-white fluff

The Hero of The Outer Worlds 

Most of my health I get from locked containers
The yellow ones     I’ve got too many FunTimes
       Barrels I found on corpses sometimes
And sometimes find them     new in garbage cans or

Whatever the red containers are     some people
Only say one thing ever     some two     and e
       -ven if I set their planet free
Their lives don’t change you     smash all the mock apples

You’ve ever seen together you won’t get
A single real Earth apple     but the juice
       Is real     the shirt that was too loose
On the corpse     fits me ’cause it’s no one’s shirt

The Hero of The God of War 

My father leads me to the mountain he
Carries my mother’s ashes in a pouch
       Me on his back up cliffs     we crouch
Beneath a heavy rock like frightened lizards     be

-tween it the     heavy rock     and the cold dirt
It’s not a tunnel     but it’s like a low
       -er sky     and shuffle as we go
Wading through human bones     I’m sick and hurt

Him by being sick     I years ago I was
And so to him I’m always sick the rock
       Might fall    and all the dry bones break
And puff away     blood traps the clouds in us

Note: “Blank Verse Sonnet Concluded by a Pure Rhyme and an Impure Rhyme” and “Elizabethan Sonnet on Violating the Flag Code” were first published in Berlin Lit