This is a repost of a poem I wrote and posted in 2018, after the disappearance and gruesome murder of accomplished dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a hit squard sent by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who is known as MBS. This week seven years later, Trump welcomed and celebrated a visit from MBS at the White House. When asked by a reporter about the fact that the Saudi leader had previously ordered the assassination of the famed journalist, Trump answered, “Leave it at That.”

Lest we forget that murder or miss its foreshadowing of the continuing adoration Trump has for violent dictators, I am reposting my October, 2018, Poet with a Press Pass poem. The truth has not lost its grotesque warning of what was to come as threats against Americans citizens.

The Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Mr. Bone Saw

This year Halloween comes early, savagely.
In the dark hour of demons loose in the world,
a safe house hosts a political Fright Night—
a House of Horrors with one way in
and no way out, a trap for unwitting victims.
Walk this way. Watch your step. Stop here.
Through a secret wall, robed ghouls arrive,
a gang of thugs, a royal assassination squad
armed with ropes and revenge, syringes and saws.
While a fearful fiancé waits outside,
in an inner office, the grisly nightmare unfolds:
torture, murder, dismemberment, disposal.
Though the throne rolls out ghost stories
of rogue attackers, the world knows Evil;
no one is fooled by the tales being told.
As we moan in anguish for hearts gone cold,
we speak the Truth we hope will save us—
The screams were human. The blood was red.
The bones were sawed. The horror was real.

by Anne McCrady, 2018, PPP

SOUNDLINK: SoundCloud