Introduction from the Book

It’s been 12 years since I compiled my first volume of political commen-tary in limerick form, which covered the 2012 presidential contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. That certainly was a very different, and. looking back, seemingly halcyon, time.

Since then, we’ve witnessed the acceptance of state-sponsored assassi-nations as legitimate foreign policy; interference by other countries in U.S. elections; the rise of theocracies and the fall of democracies; climate change and mass extinctions; the proliferation of conspiracy theories and fringe political movements; small- and large-scale acts of terrorism; ar med conflicts both petty and profound; a growing gulf between rich and poor; famines and plagues; and a globe generally enveloped in an atmosphere of mendacity, menace, and mayhem.

And weaving through it all is the figure of Donald J. Trump, real estate tycoon, shady businessman, inveterate huckster, reality-TV star, sexual predator, and president of the United States. I left off “crime boss” because while most Americans recognize that Trump is a tax cheat, a scofflaw, an adulterer, a sexual predator, and a liar, he has somehow managed to skate through his 78 years without being held fully accountable in a court of law for his various nefarious offenses.

The closest we’ve gotten is the $5 million judgment against him for a decades-old sexual assault on E. Jeanne Carroll, and a second judgment of $83.3 million for defaming her. Oh, and his conviction on 34 felony accounts in New York.

Currently, the Republican president-elect is still under indictment in the District of Columbia, Florida and Georgia. Whether the long arm of the law will catch up to Trump, and whether justice will be served if it does, is anybody’s guess but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Which brings us to the topic at hand: poetic justice. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as: An outcome in which vice is punished and virtue rewarded, usually in a manner peculiarly or ironically appropriate. I know that sounds unsatisfying, but in the case of We the Sane People of the United States v. Donald J. Trump, it’s the best we can hope for.

In the wake of the presidential race, the charges and investigations are evaporating along with our democracy into the cloud of authori-tarian retribution that will enshroud the nation on Day One of Trump’s investiture as Dictator for Life January 20, 2025.

So, think of these five-line poems as therapeutic, as cathartic, as venge-ful but, ultimately, as ineffectual in stemming the mighty tide of Trumpian ignorance, pettiness, and meanness. May you find them at least mildly entertaining.

Oscar Wilde wrote, “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”

That’s what I am aiming for.