Palinguistics or Seven Sorts of Sarahs (Past)

‘Palin-’ is a prefix meaning
‘backwards’ or ‘again.’
It points to pathologic
repetition, now as then:
“…refewdiate…,” “…our North Korean
allies…” – let alone
how Paul* goes “…warnin’ bells ‘n’ wringin’ Brits…”
(We should have known.)
 
     * Revere...? Only she knows.
 
Aeneas punks his pilot
in that epic named for him.
Palinurus…? Sleepin’ at the wheel –
and he can’t swim!
Swept overboard, he fails to drown.
To foreign shores he’s blown,
there liquidated by the local press.
(They should have known.)
 
What’s “Evil did I dwel;
lewd I did live”…? A palindrome.
A twofer: one shouts, “Gotcha!”
while the other shouts, “Shalom!”
Both get ya – comin', goin'...
It’s a freakin’ combat zone.
And toxic for exchange of views.
(How could we not have known!)
 
Alaska’s gub’natorial load
lay half-tow’d, snow un-blow’d.
Then Palin’s palinode* defaulted
on the debt she owed.
To Juneau’s gens her back she show’d.
She split. Due south she rode.
Did ill her recantation bode…?
Of course. We shoulda know’d
 
.     * A poem in which the poet
retracts a former position
 
A paling is a fence, one built
to keep beyond the Pales
such neighbors as McGinniss,
who anticipates big sales
with bombshells ‘bout the Palins.
Will McGinniss tell-alls own
the soapy Sarah saga…? Nope!
(McGinniss should have known.)
 
Palingeneses…? Rebirths.
(Think Furher and his Nazis.)
They’re plupreoccupations
of the lame-stream paparazzis.
P. plugs her docs. P. owns the box.
P. tweets us from her phone:
No savoir-faire! Ma Grizzly Bear!!
Big hair!!! (We should have known.)
 
‘Palinal’ means backward motion –
sometimes said of chewing.
Rearward-moving, as Alaska’s
absentee’s seen doing.
Upside-down and inside-out,
to opposites she’s prone.
She says, “News makes me sad…so I don’t watch.”
(We should have known.)