Every president ultimately has an official portrait. Obama will need three.

OBAMA AS HE SEES HIMSELF

A canvas larger than each precious moment
Reflected in the polished sun lit pool
A president who didn’t know what no meant
The face, the smile, the eyes, the teeth, so cool
A canvas splashed with pigment for the ages
To last at least a thousand thousand years
To glorify the last of nature’s sages
And generate a trillion trillion tears

OBAMA AS SEEN BY HIS LOYAL CULTIST SUPPORTERS

A canvas splashed with love and faith and kindness
A life of service, honor and of hope
Who never lost his temper as the mindless
Attacked from every side to blunt the scope
Of visions that bestrode the world around us
A vision of a world devoid of sin
A world where Barack’s loving would surround us
A world where sin and hate had never been

OBAMA AS SEEN BY THE REST OF THE WORLD

A figure scribbled on a grain of barley
A portrait by a dabbler in the arts
A tragic figure, wizened, rough and gnarly
As if the artist showed his finer parts
A man who brought destruction to a nation
That raised him to a post beyond his worth
A post that saw him far beyond his station
A man ordained for failure from his birth