My Message to the President

—after John 5.1-6

My Message to the President
		—after John 5.1-6

You do not appear to be improving 
	even as you languish there at the lip 
of the famously miraculous font, 

and nothing of your demeanor suggests
	you so much as suspect the mess you’re in.
Recently, in our modest corner, we

observed our Holy Lent, a precious time
	when we are likely as not to appraise
our respective illnesses, the more 

general shortcomings of each member
	and of the whole—the broad vista of all
persons, places, things implicated in

our corporate actions and in our dull
	failures to act. You should give it a try.
You might be surprised what such appraisal

can do to shift the heart away from self-
	contentment toward true concern. I have learned 
to see all such afflictions as my own,

and to see how I am both culpable
	and also responsible for recourse.
All this has led to my perplexity 

regarding your person, whose words and base
	manners I witness as a grim parade
of joyless resentments. So, I must ask

Do you wish to be healed? I do believe
	that this is pretty much the sum of all
that attends my thought of you. Already,

I can estimate your untoward response
	as you continue your decline, yet so 
very near the restorative pool. Your

dull, for the most part incoherent words
	refuse your patent need of remedy.
Broken sir, I pray that you might soon quit 

this long delusion promising ever
	to keep you both unwell and unwilling
to be drawn to the trembling waters.