NewVerseNews Extra: I WANT TO SEE IT
by Tricia Knoll
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Trump fingerprinted. Putting his fat fingers on the inky pad, rolling each one back and forth like criminals do. Dirty hands. Who hands him something to wipe the ink off? Does he bite at his lip angry about he got here? Does he try to make a joke, pretend it’s an autograph requested by some MAGA man in a red hat? Talk about it going to his Library? Those secret service agents watching, what do they know of irony? What vow have they made? The bored jail officer has done this a million times. Can that officer categorize the look in the eye of this man? When it’s all done, is he obsessed with the shadow of ink only he can see? Wondering what smut clogs his crevices, the bacteria that linger. Does he ask his aide for hand sanitizer as if to wipe away the moment. Does anyone in the room dare laugh?
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Tricia Knoll is a Vermont poet. Her most recent collection is One Bent Twig(FutureCycle Press, 2023) which shares poems about trees she has loved, planted or worries about in the time of climate change.