President Of Planet Earth

President Of Planet Earth
© Surazeus
2024 11 29

When I hear the telephone ring again 
I wonder if God is still trying to call me 
because he wants me to play his messiah 
and save the world from greed of selfish tyrants, 
but I do not want to die on the cross, 
so I just let his call go to voice mail. 

I would rather go to the art museum 
and look at the tear-smeared swirls of color 
that hide the agony of human feelings 
which sting from gossip of the smarmy clowns 
who glare at me with harsh hostility 
then smile to my face with hypocrisy. 

Each person who passes me in the hall 
points to the blurry painting on the wall, 
and snickers with delight that it reflects 
confusing chaos of my cluttered mind, 
so I go down the endless stairs of buckets 
to find the plastic idol of my soul. 

Since my father is closing his restaurant 
where he sold fried fish for thirty-eight years, 
I search the storage room for secret treasure, 
but find photographs of our family 
under bags of rotten fish in the cooler, 
including one of me in my king costume. 

While driving Mercury Comet in the snow, 
to evade time warriors with laser rifles, 
I plow into the snow bank on the lawn 
and hit the statue of Saturn that falls 
crumbling into turtles who escape Hell, 
so the principle tells me to leave school. 

I almost join the police academy 
so I can beat criminals I despise, 
but I get conscripted into the army 
and sent to fight the enemy abroad, 
so I shoot at ghosts of Trojan warriors 
who celebrate the fall of America. 

Ambition discombobulates my mind 
with shiny delusion that I can win 
campaign for President of Planet Earth 
though assassins in shadows of your hearts 
keep shooting at the ghost of my contempt 
for the power of life and death I wield. 

When I find myself crowned King of the Earth, 
I try to abdicate office of greed, 
but my hands and legs are chained to the throne 
so I am forced to judge the right or wrong 
of every case brought to my divine court 
in my afternoon television show.