Poem/a/Day: Pat Robertson, I Hate You by Stephanie M. Glazier

Pat Robertson, I Hate You

“…they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘Ok it’s a deal.”
- Pat Robertson on The 700 Club explaining Haiti’s 2010 earthquake

When he appeared on the cover of Time, was he showing the Mason's devil claw?

You are a dink, a swallop, a wanker.
I hate you the way Jesus forgives.

I hate the way you hold your hands up when you pray.
You are pointing a finger at the heavens, Pat Robertson.

Who raised you, Pat Robertson?
I would like to hold her,
feed her sweet things,
tell her not to be so afraid.
It’s possible that she herself made
some kind of deal,
some kind of pact
Don’t deny it, it’s possible:
she traded you.

I just can’t believe it, Pat Robertson,
that the Lord would hate a people so much,
a whole people: their affects and idioms,
their first-born sons and golden teeth,
that the earth would shake.
You are old, Pat Robertson.
I heard once
that, in your heart,
hating someone is the same
as committing murder.
I was young
but I remember.

Poem by Stephanie M. Glazier

Glazier recently interviewed Michigan poet Thomas Lynch of Milford for Mittenlit which you can read here.