the hand hug

if there was a list of all
the famous handshakes between politicians,
between the heads of states in human history,
with one hand clasped over,
making the whole moment seem
exactly what it wasn’t
for the observing public eyes,
one wonders just how many of those handshakes
went on to become hands
with trigger fingers,
hands that had one index extended
to press that fatal button
to launch an attack,
to drop bombs or napalm,
to send a legion of drones or
to incinerate the people of that very man
whom only days, weeks, months or years ago
had performed so brilliantly
that great show of
falsity & hypocrisy
of which we have all become
far too accustomed.