After Bush
Word by word
the Constitution unstitched
as though
the whole thing
were merely a sixth-grade
science project,
just a couple of paper cups
held together
by a string tied at either end
and a wrinkled sheet
of lined paper,
half a paragraph, a C job
at best,
to be thrown out
by the janitor on a late Tuesday
after the science fair
where this Democracy
received 15th place
among eighteen entries,
one of which
was nothing more
than a ball with a pencil tied to it
under PENDULUM.