The Jekyll-Hyde nature of Barack Obama is fascinating.

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I spent an hour with Mr. O, who explained the Union's state,

I have to say he sounded good, the country really great.

He made some jokes and talked with gut, didn't hide the pain,

And made you feel that he's a man who knows about hard rain.

.

Hard rain for old and young and mid, for workers, gays and straights,

For folks whose jobs just come and go, or student U-loan rates.

Future pains he understood, especially pension trouble,

For those unlucky sacked mid-stream or hit by Wall Street bubble.

.

Been years since someone spoke this way, with words so clean and calm,

For many troubled 'bout our nation, his words were sure a balm.

Yet he's the man of most contrast in century twenty-one,

Called quite right a saint, a Bush, or corporate hired gun.

.

Barack's the one who slammered Manning, sent Snowden on the run,

Dropped Hell-on-Fire on poor Pakis, killed a terrorist's son.

His new law lets the soldiers in to snatch you clean away,

To leave in prison till you rot; forget in court your day.

.

Homeland's only swelled and swelled, your data all to keep.

Yet Mr. O and Mr. Clap just promise not to peep.

His foreign p's pure neocon, he's outwarred Gen'ral Ike,

And never met a Saudi king or drone he didn't like.

.

What are we to make of him, who zigzags all so zany?

Who gets up feeling JFK and lies down feeling Cheney?

To me in him there's some huge gap, there's something very wrong,

This man that oozes common sense, yet strings us all along.

.

.

Not to say he's cynical: he's way too smart for that.

Nor to say he's criminal: he can't wear Nixon's hat.

But historians will long confer on just who this guy was.

The wonder that was Mr. O will long make people puzz.

Authors Website: http://www.philipkraske.com

Authors Bio:

For recitations of my poems, go to my website: http://www.philipkraske.com/kraske-fiction/