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# New Pope
- URL: https://www.fsm.ink/new-pope/
- Published: 2025-06-30T19:11:20.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-03T17:56:53.000Z
- Author: Emma David
- Tags: Poetry, #Import 2026-08-03 09:59

*by Emma David*

Everyone’s like oh yeah he’s American  
From Chicago  
Da bears  
Homeboy from the homeland  
Of the brave,  
Free if you’re lucky,  
If you’re white  
If you’re male  
If you’re rich  
They’re saying he’s all about poor people  
And the environmental crisis  
And tweeted some shit about trump a while back,  
critical things  
“So that’s good,” they say at work, at the dinner  
table, on the drive home

There’s the whole glazed over predatory behavior  
but we slide that under the immaculately made  
bed, like a kid who promised to clean their room,  
so we can sell the house before they see the rotting  
wood floorboards covered by gloriously handmade  
Persian rugs, the mold behind the fridge that has AI  
built into it so you don’t even have to remember the  
milk is empty anymore, missing rooftop shingles,  
popping off like buttons on a cheap shirt made by  
hungry children, you don’t see it because the sun is  
so bright it’s always so fucking bright  
  
But it’s right downtown  
But it’s in our budget  
But it’s not that bad  
Not that outdated  
Questionable  
Underwhelming  
We can make it work if we don’t look closely,  
Light cookie scented candles to cover the putrid  
smell of rotting lungs in the basement,

Play Emmylou Harris on vinyl to cover their voices  
pummeling through the pipes but that one scratch  
keeps catching catching catching, keeps picking at  
your skin, little nips at your toes and fingertips like  
minnows in a lake in summer,  
  
they’re just minnows in a lake in summer, but we  
don’t go swimming at the lake anymore, it’s hard to  
look at / all mucky and shallow with too many dead  
fish and not enough water / so we buy a chlorine  
pool instead and tell ourselves we don’t even smell  
the bleach

> Emma David’s poetry has appeared in Bastard’s  
> Review, Pink Salt Collective, Nude Bruce Review,  
> The Wallop, and Humankind Zine, along with two  
> self-published poetry collections.