Three Poems

A step too far

Yesterday I woke up as the President. How incredible!
I walked down the street and everybody was stopping
and smiling at me. One woman held out her baby and
I kissed it on the forehead like a loaf of warm bread.
A rickshaw driver saw me and pulled over. ‘Sir, if it’s not
too much to ask, would you pardon my brother? He’ll
come good if forgiven, I just know it’. ‘Well sure!’
I said. Why wouldn’t I? Hell, I could pardon anybody.
I pardoned an apple thief and an old couple who had
been caught smoking down by the river. I pardoned
a troublesome teenager despite the fact he had
had only bad things to say about my regime. I even
pardoned some of the local tax collectors. I took a
walk in the botanical gardens and pardoned the dill
and the heirloom tomatoes. I pardoned a swarm of
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