After nearly two years of recycling the same criticisms of Donald Trump, one congressional Democrat decided to get a little more creative with his delivery.
On Monday, National Haiku Day, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., penned a poem calling on the president to release his tax returns. With an almost-Shakespearean flair, Swalwell wrote:
President Trump claims
“Nothing to hide, or to fear.”
Still, no tax returns.
While not a masterpiece, Swalwell’s effort would merit a solid C+ in any eighth grade creative writing class. His decision to use correct punctuation where warranted but leave the first line unpunctuated betrays a certain sense of recklessness, as though the author is expressing an ironic disregard for conventions. Or maybe it’s more a matter of laziness. Hard to tell.
The poem’s simplicity, seeming almost to embrace the voice of a child, is hauntingly provocative. What is there to hide? What is there to fear? Is the president lying to us? Swalwell’s poem poses these questions with a deft subtlety, choosing to juxtapose the president’s claims with a suggestive final line that stops short of explicitly supplying the answer.
With these 17 syllables, Swalwell gifted us, the People, with a hauntingly understated work of art that will surely reverberate in the American consciousness for days to come.
No word on whether the cultural-appropriation police have set their sights on the congressman over his decision to exploit this traditional Japanese art form.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
