One Day in Washington
I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind. Bob Dylan Idiot Wind
The White House doesn’t seem so white today,
more a rainy shade of gray,
and Lincoln looks more serious than usual
inside his classical Memorial,
and Washington’s great Monument stands proud
although its apex hides within a cloud,
and cops and bikers sweat, and kids play ball
along the walkways of the National Mall,
and everyone is here, the sage, the fool,
casting their hopes in the Reflecting Pool,
some jeer and some are silent, some applaud
Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Lord,
some think there isn’t very much to fear
but fear itself, and distance is not near,
and everything can be replaced, they say,
until the next time it is blown away
by idiot winds, and others, fast and loose,
play games of chance with executioner’s noose
and pardoner’s hand, and deathly voodoo doll,
from New York City to the Capitol,
and all is still a grayer shade of white
and the hard rain falls long into the night.