Showdown with a Cactus: Poems Chronicling the Prickly Struggle Between the Forces of Dubya-ness and Enlightenment, 2003-2006

While history may withhold its judgment of President George W. Bush, for several more years, Brodsky, in Showdown with a Cactus, sees no reason to wait. In 101 poems, he relentlessly questions the motives behind the foreign and domestic policies of our forty-third president, with special attention paid to the disastrous military excursion into Iraq.

Bush's cabinet and advisors, also, are treated to Brodsky's sometimes scathing examination, as is the complacency of many American citizens, who, in the poem "Re: Election," are only too happy to ignore the state of the world: "Sing Hallelujah! George the Lord has risen!"