by Dan Campion

“Down In The Polls, Trump Pitches Fear: ‘They Want To Destroy Our Suburbs’”
—NPR

Whose suburbs does Don mean, one asks;
White folks’ of nineteen-fifty
(Before we needed Covid masks)?
Where Beaver’s folks were thrifty

To save for his and Wally’s room
And board at Upstate U
(Whose classes needn’t meet on Zoom
To dodge a “hoax” and “flu”)?

Where “My Three Sons” breathed prime-time air
(Not, like now, virus-ridden),
Rick Nelson crooned without a care,
And Father coddled “Kitten”?

Where lily-white meant innocent;
Black Lives weren’t seen or missed;
No actors gave the slightest hint
Such places don’t exist?

That seems to be the case, alas.
A land plunged in disease
Must suffer through Don’s looking-glass:
Old black-and-white TV’s.