Al-Assad
An autocrat named al-Assad
Decided he’d not spare the rod.
His thugs kill at will,
But we wonder still:
What happens when he’s shot his wad?
Some say his reaction is odd:
They say this Assad is no clod.
But he learned from pop
To play the bad cop.
Who knows how it ends? Maybe God.
Calvin TrillinCalvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”