China Policy

Deadline Poet

By Calvin Trillin

This article appeared in the November 9, 2009 edition of The Nation.

October 21, 2009

        1.
So why did President Obama
Decline to meet the Dalai Lama?
It's said that he must curry favor
With China. Yes, it has our waiver
To toss its people in the clink
For how they pray or what they think.
And we've resolved that we won't fret
About the way it rules Tibet.

        2.
For going along when China's rotten
It's hard to think of what we've gotten.

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About Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation's "deadline poet." He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963 and has written the syndicated weekly column "Uncivil Liberties" since 1986. He has authored many, many books, including Tepper's Not Going Out and Deadline Poet: My Life as a Doggerelist. more...
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