Negative Capability Press Poetry Blog

1

a poem of limited political moment

the midterm elections
during clinton's first term
marked a turning point
in american politics
a turning back point
there was a huge backlash
against clintonian inclusiveness
and so liberal became
a four-letter word
it was a time for contracts
with or on america a time for
thinly veiled political codewords
summoning racist subtexts
but mostly it was a time
for taking back america from
the politically correct
the feminazis and multiculturalism
so that it could be restored
to its rightful owners
the rich white males

nowhere was this more apparent
than in a movie that came out
just as that election season
was getting cranked up
it was a disney movie
a cartoon seemingly for kids
designed to instill in our children
the traditional american values
that have made this country great
the film was set in africa
and all of the characters were animals
but it nonetheless had a markedly
human feel to it an american feel
the hero of the film is a young lion
simba who never shows any qualities
beyond his birthright that he is fit to lead
it is worth noting however that
his voice was provided by the whitest
of all possible voices matthew broderick
his father mufasa was james earl jones
now you might say that he is black
but you would never even think to
say that darth vader was black
so your objections are pointless
and it would be equally useless
to point out that jeremy irons
who played scar isn't gay or that
nathan lane who played timon
the meerkat isn't jewish
but you must admit that you'd
never heard of a meerkat until
after you'd seen this movie
you just thought
he was weasley looking
and definitely jewish sounding
so you do the math
but you could never deny that
his sidekick pumbaa the warthog
is clearly a working-class pig
cutely charming but oafish and ignorant
the two were fast friends but were
nothing more than entertaining outcasts
and then there were the hyenas
beautifully played by the very
conspicuously black sounding whoopi
and the unmistakably chicano cheech
then there's the idiotic inarticulate ed
poster child of the great unwashed
but i am sure that all of these
characterizations along with
the west african accented monkey are
nothing but unintended coincidence

so it would be thinking too much
then to consider the story
with its oscar-winning music
and its classic coming of age plot
an allegorical representation
of american politics in the
early nineties from the right
where scar the evil agent of
the morally corrupt liberal left
tries to topple the traditional hierarchy
by integrating the hyenas
from across the tracks
into the mainstream society
and it would surely be reading
too much in to the film to associate
the visual imagery of this alliance
with the dominant images
of communism in china and ussr
despite the fact that the final image
of that scene shows a hyena
howling at the yellow moon
bearing an amazing resemblance to
the outline of a hammer and sickle
nor should we be terribly alarmed by
how this forced assimilation destroys
the prosperity of the prideland
by bringing famine and drought
or how the restoration of the rightful
white guy to the throne instantly and
remarkably restores beauty and plenty
to the society and to the world
i mean it was just a children's movie

and now fourteen years later
we would like to believe that america
has turned a corner of sorts
but even after suffering through
a simba-like rule that turned
plenty into plight
we now have two unexpected
challengers to the throne
an african american man and a woman
trudging through endless primaries
and just when it seems the black man
has secured his party's nomination
his female opponent
the wife of the source of all
the backlash from before
is playing on the same subtle racisms
that were subtexts in the film
not only is the black man's campaign
being bombarded in the media
with continual racial and religious
nagging and being faced with
outrageous and offensive
treatment on the trail
but his opponent is saying that
she should be the nominee
because of landslide victories
in lilywhite mason-dixon states
and that she should be the next
president because this clearly means
she is the stronger candidate
since she does so much better
among working-class americans
hardworking americans
white americans
real americans

and so we hear the same old notes again
only without cute animals and songs
and the new lion king will therefore be
almost assuredly the same color
as simba only possibly a bit more queen-like