A Political Poem for Presidential Candidates, All of Whom are Contemptible

Some Remarks on Healthcare

Let us now praise famous men
Who never resort to strength
To maintain their physiques

And have the cheek to suggest
That maybe the laurels of their labor
Are sufficient to set store against skin
Either inside or out. Policy regulates

Bodies, though immune to their needs,
Except as a function of the known
and isolate. Pain is mapped as a desultory blip

On an x-ray screen that omits the mind,
The secret wound, while saving itself
As insurance against itself.

j. curley