This poem is a tribute to the kerfuffle of President and candidate Biden’s recent debate performance. If I were to pick an alter-ego other than “Top Pun,” on some days I might choose “Cassandra” the Greek mythological character fated to utter true prophecies but never to be believed. Of course, even Cassandra’s curse is limited, as no one can predict the future reliably. Still, America’s chronic collective amnesia yields innumerable tragic repetitions of history. Simply knowing a bit of history seems like staring into the sun sometimes. May we make a future steeped in the lessons and wisdom learned from our collective past, weather that future be ours or daze.
The Age of Know Surprise
Cassandra shakes
Her head no’ing
Countless ages
And fated futures
Cursed to sea
Those unfathomable tears
Of typhoons waving
Still waters running deep
And ships flagging
Due too unseen lessens
This idiomatic age
Biden its time
Sublimely approachable
As beer goggles undated
A bombshell from afar
And debatable performances to come
As know surprise
As confusion says
Mystifyingly clear
Despite the mass portending
Who could have divined such a fete
A kingly hole
The soul of a nation
Vacated
Even beyond Cassandra’s sight
What will arise from that?
Bared deep in our psyche
In tuition
And fruition
