When George Washington was asked
To take his oath of office as President,
William Maclay, who was present,
Wrote in his Journal,
That Washington “seemed to have forgot
Half what he was to say,
For he made a dead pause and stood for some time,
To appearance, in a vacant mood.”
It was 1789. Two hundred years later
President Bush could barely read the oath,
And President Obama fluffed it
So that he had to take the oath again.
It indicates the artificial nature
Of the whole procedure –
That it sits uneasily both with bone-headed idiots
And with megalomaniac narcissists alike.
“It is a well-known fact”, said Douglas Adams, “that those people
Who want to rule people are those least suited to do it…
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President
Should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
It may be no accident that an amnesiac stuttering kicks in
When people assume a Presidential role.
Could it be a karmic impediment to omnipotence
Perhaps because the office itself is a killing joke?
Heathcote Williams