Testaments: Bill Clinton

This week, John Peeler presents “Testaments,” a series of poems that take the form of valedictory statements by each of the postwar presidents, in the poetic manner of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology.

Bill Clinton

They beat me once;
I’d not be too liberal again.
I learned to feel folk’s pain,
raise cash like a Republican,
and, like a populist raise Cain.
I couldn’t keep my pants on when I should have.
I tried to cover up when I shouldn’t have.
What politico’s without some sin?
Except my wife.