Hard Work Appears in Our Midst

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Thank you, President Bush, for your unifying altruism.

I mean, thank you for your elegant, earnest funding
   of so many educational efforts and for embracing the latest
   science that helps propel us forward as a people
   of one party following the lead of no other.

I mean, thank you for supporting the expensive banks of checks
   and balances with a bottom line of saving Defense
   and providing for world nations the image of a gunslinger
   who is never afraid. Not since President Reagan 
   has such an ambitious actor done his best to be casual.

And thanks for not messing with those fact-hungry
   trouble-makers pointing out how you failed
   here and there in business and left your military duties
   when something more interesting
   was happening-you are amazing
   in how you thought of your country.
And the criticism--you just shrugged it off!

And you shrugged off the Texas educational miracle
   after it was shown to be a fraud.
And you sincerely shrug off the killed Iraqis
   because you figure we are fighting Evil itself
   in such a mythic battle it's bound to leave behind bodies,
   and the movie of it needs to be believable
   when we watch it on TV, the bodies need to be there,
   counted and uncounted, unacknowledged and other.
   And army people driving half-armored vehicles
   show how tough we are, how strong you are.

I mean, thank you for taking the country by the teeth,
   for showing your bully pulpit is stronger than your father's.
   Is he in awe when we talks with you now?
   Do people compare you to Henry V, shaking their weapons
   over their heads, and chanting "Commander, Commander"?

But no matter what others say, no matter what they know,
You don't let anyone get in the way.

You are a master gardener of the practical ways money hits paydirt.
Everyone is illuminated by your shadow, by the odd nicknames
   you give to those who shouldn't have power over you
   or ask you serious spontaneous questions,
   and you have decried that the "highest calling"
   we can respond to
   is that of the military.
   Boldly you have said this, whatever you did
   when you were young. You might have been foolish
   but you stand for heavy artillery and tanks
   and missiles in outer space if needed,
   and for those nuclear weapons
   that tunnel down
   into the mansions
   of hell itself. And in your compassion,
   you have allowed power to speak to those without language,
   since Mid-Easterners don't speak with American common sense.
All they want is a foreign religion, mumbo jumbo,
   and a lot of the world's oil.
   It doesn't make sense they aren't like us.

I mean, thank you for giving our entire country a massive purpose,
   for closing the tomb of the 20th Century,
   for teaching us how to march and breathe air
   as if it were clean. You have liberated the manufactories
   and helped them sail off to explore other countries.
   We're back in exciting days of previous centuries, thanks to you.

And thank you for protecting big and small businesses by helping
   them to liberate their responsibilities. We are definitely
   a free people, and this proves it. Thank you for helping
   the burden of health insurance payments fall where they may,
   saddles on the ground, their weight no longer on the shoulders
   of owners who are covered, and of course thank you
   for working for AIDS by requiring abstinence only.
Our youngsters just need permission
   to be abstinent.

It's a war against Evil, as you've asserted, Mr. President,
   and we are the biblical guys. If it takes a little
   cleverness to make the words
   say what certainly ought to be,
   then so be it-as we remake the world
   in the images we know are true
   for God-trusting money that buys food
   and shelters the best of us
   in this tyranny of the god-dammed poor.