I smoke the dope of horoscope 
got the same January 9th birthday as Richard Milhous Nixon 
an unshaven fact that’s five-o’clock shadowed 
my whole life 
—a life that’s not been without its own 
toxic Nixonic 
I-am-not-a-crook razor-resistant stubble: 
lies insecurities jealousies 
paranoias cover-ups list of enemies 
checkered speech & naked ambitions 
even its own problematic tricky dick 
& dire desire to be pardoned

Robert Eugene Rubino

Since retiring from daily journalism in 2013, Robert Eugene Rubino has published prose and poetry in several literary journals, including The Esthetic Apostle, Cathexis Northwest, Gravitas, and Haunted Waters Press, and in anthologies Poetic Bond IX (Willowdown Books, 2019) and Earth Hymn (KYSO Flash, 2019). He’s old enough to have voted for George McGovern and smart enough to solve the New York Times crossword puzzle on Mondays (other days not so much).

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Hollow Be Thy Name, a poem in Issue 12 of KYSO Flash (Summer 2019)

⚡ Owl House, a poem at Haunted Waters Press