A roasted chicken

Comes out of the oven

Needing to be deboned

Skin removed     grease

Poured out of the roaster

Into an empty soup can

From the freezer

Waiting to be filled

 

This job surrounds

More than an hour

Of my afternoon

Leaves a mess

Reminds me of the president

The pile of disasters

Created by him

And his administration

As bones lie splayed

On the bottom of the roaster

Greasy skin

Against the sides

 

Afterwards

The kitchen is cleaned up

Grease can full of grease

Put back in the freezer

Chicken bones in a pot

Ready to make soup

Skin packed safely away

In a garbage pail

And the meat

Cut into pieces

For chicken salad

Order is restored

Again

 

Now

Time to clean up

The real mess

I want to vacuum

The White House

Sweep its occupants

Out the door

Hose down the Congress

Scrub the Pentagon

With soapy water

And gallons of disinfectant

Fumigate

The Department of Justice

The FBI     the CIA

Harder

Much harder

Than roasting a

Chicken

 

*Wendy crafted this poem after President Barak Obama was elected in 2008. It was first published in her 2014 collection, Reflections. I publish it today, November 8, 2020, one day after Joe Biden was declared President Elect, with a sense of hope that perhaps decency, compassion, intelligence, and sanity may return to our country, our hearts, and our homes. —Dina McQueen, blog manager