Listen I could talk to you all day about Donald Trump’s obsession with Rosie O’Donnell and his everything-phobic dismissal of her basic humanity and his enduring conviction that everybody finds her as deserving of mockery as he does… but I’ll spare you. Mostly because I already have talked to you about this: the first time was in 2010, the most recent time was a year ago after the Republican debate where Donald Trump once again used Rosie as a punchline. I said it then and I’ll say it again — she is not a perfect person, she has said and done things that are not okay — but there’s also a lot I love about Rosie, she’s been awesome to me every time I’ve seen her, and also I have loved Rosie for so long. (I still have the ticket stub from when she played Rizzo in the touring company of Grease, okay?) I’ve always appreciated how vulnerable she makes herself in order to help others, particularly when it comes to being open about her struggles with depression, which is one of the many things she does in a poem she published on her website yesterday after meeting Ivanka Trump.
“Rosie O’Donnell Wrote a Poem About Meeting Ivanka Trump and It Honestly Deserves a Pulitzer,” was Claire Landsbaum’s headline for a piece about this piece at The Cut. Readers: I think you will agree with Claire.
Before you stick your sporks into the loin and muscle of this fantastic work of art, entitled “8 Million to One,” can we take a moment for the opening graf that has no real bearing on the remainder of the piece?
i saw 4 cops – security i thought
well dressed
jovial – handsome – “yo rosie”
“wasssup men” my common reply
I hope you all just wrote “add ‘wasssup men’ to my everyday vocabulary” in the goals section of your Passion Planner.
Anyhow: Rosie then reveals that she’s been wrapped up like a burrito in bed since the debate, struggling to accomplish basic tasks because depression is a beast like that. But she managed to make it out of the house for dinner at Nobu, where Ivanka Trump happened to also be dining.
dear god
i prayed
guide me
out of here
Rosie is mesmerized by Ivanka’s beauty. And then they meet.
i told her of my children
some truths about myself
my pain and shame
she was absurdly kind
“i just wanted u to know”
i said in a shaky quiet voice
i then made my way down the large wooden stairway
into my waiting car
Okay, now go read the whole thing from top to bottom. Warning: the ending might punch you in the heart.
