May 14, A Linguistic Change

Twas during Donald’s trial, the word, “pecker” lost its punch.
At least, that’s my conclusion, based on more than just a hunch.
It used to mean the penis, a slang term that we all knew,
But now it’s gone from slang to sleaze, connoting something new.

The National Enquirer is a “yellow journal” rag (1)
Where David Pecker was the boss, whose ethics make one gag.
And Pecker played on team Trump where he practiced “catch and kill” (2)
To help Trump cover up his life of slime and sewer swill.

In ‘16, Donald ran against the well-known, Hillary. (3)
So, Pecker published articles to smear her history,
With “catch and kill” and made-up stories for Trump’s benefit.
He disregarded truth; the stories were all counterfeit.

So, David painted, “pecker” with an undercoat of sleaze.
In days gone by, a funny term, now more like a disease.
Let’s bow our heads in silence at this sad change for the worse.
Linguistic evolution, passing time has been perverse. (4)

So, David Pecker covered up what Donald’s pecker did.
But then, the story leaked; they did not tighten down the lid.
They say that, “truth will out,” but now might Donald go to jail?
If so, that’s quite a price to pay for Trump, the alpha male.

Will linguists in the future refer back to Donald’s trial,
As when the comic, “pecker” was turned into something vile?
For those of us alive today, we watched on live TV
And saw when “pecker” lost its punch. Add that to Trump’s CV.

(1) “Yellow Journalism” is a term used to refer to tabloids that trade in sensationalism.
(2) “Catch and Kill” is a practice of buying a story then burying it. It is used to keep both true and false stories from harming the reputations of various well-known people, such as Donald Trump. The National Enquirer used “catch and kill” to keep the story of Trump’s affair with the Playmate, Karen McDougal, from common public knowledge.
(3) Hillary Clinton, wife of Bill Clinton. She had been a US Senator from New York and Secretary of State. She was far more qualified than Trump, who had never held any public office.
(4) Consider the change in common meaning of the word, “gay.”