Originality is not common in human nature
Not every group has unique nomenclature
There are troops of mongoose and baboons
Troops of dolphins, gorillas and raccoons
Colonies of cormorants, colonies of mice
Colonies of termites and beavers and lice
But only two groups convene in a congress
One's power is zero, the other's humongous
The first congress is populated by salamander
A group that always hated the gerrymander
This species is comprised of slimy amphibian
Who would never blow the world into oblivion
The second congress highlights human beings
Who tend to spend days and nights disagreeing
This gang is deemed a federal legislative body
And will be filled to the gills with silly tomnoddy
Congress A is deliberate and rarely reckless
Congress B is undisciplined and fairly feckless
Both groups emit poison when there's a threat
One group nitpicks everything save the debt
The first congress is in the family of frogs
The second one leaps into long monologues
One group is over seventy percent Caucasian
Both species dine on digestible crustacean
The reptilian congress is fertile and unisexual
The civilian one is bicameral and ineffectual
Salamanders flick small tails to stun a predator
Politicians tick off tall tales to run for Senator
Both parties have soft bodies and very thin skin
Just one group will abandon their kith and kin
Both have sticky fingers and sticky tongues
But one has an uber-cockeyed weltanschauung
Both congresses love to frolic in their swamp
But one hides behind circumstance and pomp
The lizards would never destroy the ecology
The wizards traffic in unalloyed mythology
One group is not equipped to sing the blues
The other goes off-script to croon "Fake News"
Salamanders can regenerate any lost limbs
Politicians articulate prayers and hymns
One congress creeps while ethically upright
The other stands tall yet can reach no height
Both groups act normal and appear quotidian
One of them will lie on the good book by Gideon
When election day comes this "pro-gun" year
Pay no attention to the big-ticket sloganeer
You can take delight in your right to write-in
Candidates for congress who let the light in
Vote Salamander!
Bruce Buschel is a writer who lives in Bridgehampton.