In a dream I am an artist
Working for a radically progressive magazine, The Terra-ist,
That has sent me under cover to intern for Trump.
I have been working on a feature story
About an immigration detention center
And one of my sketches
That is being considered for the cover,
Has somehow fallen into Trump's hands.
It shows a man climbing over a wall
From the perspective of
The free-side of the wall.
Only his face (from mouth up) is visible,
And his hands, gripping the edge of the wall.
Trump is furious at me
For not depicting the man's attempted escape
From inside the compound.
He says my drawing portrays him as a hero
Whereas he is "just a nobody
Standing on the shoulders of another nobody".
He says that by showing his face
I am casting him as a " ' Cinderella Man'.
Next thing ya know someone is going to
Turn him into an action figure!"
I respond by asserting, It is not a political statement,
It is art!
We are outside.
Trump is fuming, turning bright pink.
He stomps off maybe about 20 feet.
I watch him nervously,
Pretty sure I am about to be fired,
When he bends his knees, hunches slightly,
Makes a little jump, coming down hard,
And his legs, like powerful hydraulic catapults,
Launch him 30 feet straight up in the air!
I am stunned, as I watch him rise
And drop back down to a standing position.
My dream ends with me
Fearing the surreal powers of this man.
..............
Note: This prose poem is based on a dream. Everything in the poem is from the dream except the bit about how I was working for a progressive magazine named The Terra-ist that had recruited me to work undercover for Trump as an intern. In the dream I am just working for Trump as an intern on my own volition. The drawing of the man climbing the wall to escape detention, was a photo I had taken (within the dream), not a drawing. The rest is an accurate borrowing from the dream. If this had been based on a fantasy and not a dream, I don't think I would have written it. The dream makes it numinous, grants it a certain gravitas, a life of its own.
(Article changed on Dec 16, 2025 at 7:00 PM EST)
(Article changed on Dec 17, 2025 at 8:13 AM EST)
(Article changed on Dec 18, 2025 at 9:51 AM EST)
