On Hearing About a Plot to Assassinate President Bush

I think that I shall never see
A president as great as he.

A Bush upon whose bristly limbs
War hawks sit singing Gospel hymns.

A Bush which lifts its limbs to pray
No same-sex marriage gets away

From laws that halt stem cell research,
Free choice, and everything the church

Forbids. This Bush knows how to hide a
Killer bee for each Al Qaeda

Terrorist and Democrat.
Its shrubby branches’ rat-a-tat

Is heard throughout the world, and I
Am here to praise this Bush or die.

Pencils may be meant to push.
Only God has pull with Bush.

JAMES REISS is Poet-in-Residence and Professor of English at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His most recent book is Riff on Six: New and Selected Poems (Salt Publishing). He’s He can be reached at: reissja@muohio.edu