Like Ronald Reagan

I’m a great actor like Ronald Reagan

I’m a good liar like Ronald Reagan

I say no to drugs like Ronald Reagan

I tear down walls like Ronald Reagan

I trickle down to the poor (Promise!) like Ronald Reagan

I pop jelly beans like Ronald Reagan

I sell guns with dark purpose like Ronald Reagan

Then, oh the irony, I get shot like Ronald Reagan

But, a tough bastard, I keep kickin like Ronald Reagan

My old friends still buy me Oatmeal Cream Pies

My old friends always make me feel guilty

My old friends hold audience in my conscious and

My old friends inform too many of my decisions

(Because really my old friends are prudes)

My old friends often warn me about the risks of alcoholism

My old friends don’t share in my progressive politics

My old friends are removed by geography and estranged by lifestyle

The problem with my poetry is that it’s sexually ambiguous

The problem with my poetry is that its informed by crazy, old, women writers and rap music

The problem with my poetry is that nobody gets it

The problem with my poetry is that it uses adjectives as crutches

The problem with my poetry is that it sounds like a Perez Hilton Blog

The problem with my poetry is that I am (in fact) not black—shhhh

The problem with my poetry is that I steal style from minorities without giving them agency

White people love me like Ronald Reagan but

The problem with my poetry is it don’t pay for bread or alimony

My old friends and I got divorced but still exchange cards at Christmas

The problem with my poetry is that the words, strung out and shaking like drug addicts, wear the faces of Ronald Reagan and my old friends, hold hands like fragile paper dolls in rings around my bed.

SM Jan 2010