Some Guys You Just Don’t Mess With

At the entrance to the New York City

Museum of Natural History

is a statue of a racist,

jingoistic politician

up on his high horse,

attended by “natives” on foot.

Our neo-Calvinist Elect

insisted the commissioners reject

a statue of FDR

holding a cigarette.

Also the one of Eleanor

reminding us she often wore

a stole made from the furry skins

of animals.

But entering or leaving the Museum

of Natural History, the Elect

avert their eyes and hurry by

the statue of the boisterous bully boy,

up on his high horse, lording it over them,

often with a pigeon on his head.

From Did You See This? Poems to Provoke the Politically Correct by Herb Knapp

Photo by Lee Snider

For more poems from this volume see girandolebooks.com