Lordy, who knew James Comey could be so poetic? The former FBI director might present a sober, folksy figure in person, but in print, he’s a master of evocative imagery and enigmatic phrases—at least when those phrases are sliced and spliced by an actual poet.
In “Comey: Cut-up,” first published in the literary journal Scoundrel Time, word maestro Alissa Quart has reconfigured Comey’s Senate Intelligence Committee testimony as free-form verse. No fuzz, we promise!
— Lizzy Ratner
Comey: Cut-Up
And then the nature
of the person
To lift the cloud
Criminal in nature
Turning
Grandfather clock
A whole lot of personal pain
Lifting the cloud
Being somebody who loves
this country
These were lies
The nature of its work
As a cloud
Grandfather clock
Lie about the nature
Meant by the cloud
Turning over rocks
Grandfather clock
That’s wonderful and painful
Big messy wonderful country
The cloud
