Trump 2.0

A non-consecutive serving president like Grover Cleveland
             Convicted of thirty-four felonies

It was if the land had already been taken over, becoming a reeveland
             Surrounded by and creating more enemies

An orange-blonde coiffed clown’s sweep over hair, perfectly styled
             A spray on orange tan for the cameras

A cartoon figure signing 268 executive orders thus far and more reviled
             Than ever before, a demonic persecution of Latin American diasporas

Scapegoats to hide the nefarious actions of the regime and beyond the mid-term
             After two impeachments in his first term

And every day is a new surprise with a new revelation and his never-ending grudge
             About expansion of presidential power, of SCOTUS allowing too much

And the daily search for the truth amidst all the lies
             And the ever growing need to be a political exile at times

And the call for more trials, always with an eye on the prize
             And again and again, committing so many more crimes

J.P. Linstroth has a PhD (D.Phil.) in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford. He is an Adjunct Professor at Palm Beach State College and the author of several books: Marching Against Gender Practice: Political Imaginings in the Basqueland (2015, Lexington Books); The Forgotten Shore (Poetic Matrix Press, 2017); Epochal Reckonings (Proverse Publishers HK, 2020, Winner of Proverse Prize 2019); Politics and Racism Beyond Nations: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Crises (2022, Palgrave Macmillan); and Swimming in Blue Shadows: A Collection of Short Stories and Poems (2022, Proverse Hong Kong, Proverse Supplementary Publication Prize). Read other articles by J.P..