Testatments: Dwight D. Eisenhower

by John Peeler –

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.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

I never seemed political,
as Marshall was, for FDR and Truman.
The Democrats wanted me, though,
since Marshall was dead
and Truman was dead
in the water.
But I was a Kansas Republican,
and it was time for a Republican,
and MacArthur was crazy.
I’d have fired him if Truman hadn’t.
Let him fade away.
Nixon was not my man.
I had to take him,
never gave him power.
I didn’t mind
when Kennedy won.