Uncle Sam to Hosni Mubarak

She loved you once

War hero fly boy

Swooping in to save her,

An unforeseen widow,

In her hour of desperation.

She needed your strength then,

Structure and bravado

Holding her up on your strong arm

Your finest hour

With all the neighbors looking on.

She tolerated your outbursts

Patience and lip-biting

Hoping the neighbors would say something

A shameful admonition

In public she smiled dutifully.

We all knew of your cruelty

Head nods and handshakes

Smiling across your picket fence

Tools loaned but not returned

In hopes hospitality would civilize.

We had an arrangement

Favors for favors

Loathing mutually through pearly grins

Overlooked bruises

You said, "She should learn to be more careful."

You misjudged her, it seems

Poundings and insults

Thinking they would surely break her

Heart of iron

After three decades, hers was tempered.

She stands in the street now

Strength and rebellion

Calling your name with fist raised

Stones piled at her feet

In full view of our peering eyes.

She ignores your wild ravings

Assurance and threatening

Knowing full well what you could do to her

Eyes bruised and swollen

Through these fresh reminders she stares you down.

We peer through cracked window shades

Guilty and awestruck

Yearning to rush to her defense, but we don't

Wisdom of cooler minds:

"No, let her do this for herself."

You panic behind closed doors

Fear and denial

Insisting she still loves you. She needs you.

Windows rattling her rejection

Her voice, as one. "Get out of MY house!"

You refuse, then leave like a coward

No speech or apology

Sending only a terse note in a crony's hands

Three short sentences

The second is all she needs to hear.

We weep in this moment

Relief and liberty

Cheering through open windows

Grins of satisfaction

As if we had anything to do with it.

She takes up her house keys

Tears and dignity

Glaring back at each window on the block

Thirty years of our complacency

And suddenly today we are on her side.

She closes her door

Deep sighs and head shakes

Calling a friend, to say 'thank-you'

Tunisia

Herself, recently separated.