Liberation Day

Wake up, America. It’s Liberation Day.
Can’t you just feel it? Everything’s going right.
Housing’s cheaper, like I said. So are groceries.
Inflation is nonexistent. Cut rates, Fed guys!
What’s that, I hear? You say I broke my word?
Everything I promised has been true for me.
My housing’s free. So is my food. My lawyers
Don’t have their hands out asking for their pay.
And guess what? I’m protecting you from foreign lands.
I’m raising tariffs so that you’ll be better off
And won’t mind that granny is freezing in the cold
Or the kids are begging for the food they used to have.

Yes, Liberation Day is here and you are free.
You’d better be grateful, better say I’m great
Or you could be traveling soon to El Salvador.
I’m freeing you from healthcare, from that job you hate.
I’m freeing your savings to run off with a billionaire.
I’ll free you too from worries about old age
Since you’ll work till you drop in the Land of the Free.
Most of all I’ll free you from common sense.
You’ll be free to know what a starving dog feels
When his bone has cracked and all the marrow’s gone.

John Jiambalvo is the author of two collections of poetry, Shadows Walking Among Questions and Americana Collection, as well as a satiric novel, Smirk. Read other articles by John.