Triggers

at today's press conference

a young woman journalist

widely respected and admired

asked the great world leader

if there was enough

misery and discomfort

he could dispense on others

to relieve his inner pain

gwl imploded in a rage

yelling in an orange howl

how that was a stupid unfair question

ordered the immediate removal

of the journalist's press credentials

threatened to have her

entire news organization deported

and as the ss led

her roughly to the exit

she shouted back a warning

in the general direction of the podium

that was hard to hear precisely

in all the resulting commotion

something about the grave danger

to the world posed

by gwl's failing mental health

later that night

a frantic gwl was posting

about left-wing lunatics

from his asocial media platform

incoherently ranting

as if somehow his fingers

were twirling in a blender

or his big toe were stuck

in an electric socket

repeating how

he only wanted more

for the great people

of his great nation

the tenor the tone

the urgency of

the monologue would make

even his most devoted followers

believe his head was about to pop

without the makeup

sans the coif

that his face must be contorted

puffing red and hiding

underneath the vitriol

the shrinking visage

of his inner child

easy to imagine him alone

in the royal night chamber

his body wrapped in

a tent of billowing satin pajamas

whispering desperate words

triggered by someone who pulled

the cord to a bright light

in the darkened room

that had not been illuminated

for a long while

or lit the fuse to a bomb

packed there in his belly

that he somehow knew

was waiting decades to explode

muttering non sequiturs about

making it all stop about

wanting to be admired

by everyone who mattered

not just by the good folks

in his loyal base

about whom it had been

previously reported

he referred to

as basement dwellers

to be acknowledged

and embraced just once

by a loving father figure

all the glory and praise

to be bestowed upon him

before he had to take

the unforgettable steps

in the final act

of the tragedy

by blowing it all up