I. Butler, Pennsylvania Address: July 2024
In my stomach a pit decays.
It fell from a broken peach in my heart.
Words hang from a wooden podium.
We could not predict black hail falling.
He pumps his fist and mouths “fight.”
The ground is littered with shoes and fear.
The air smells of a nation burning.
We start firing off rounds of rhetoric regardless of whether we mean them:
Yes we hate violence. No we love the law. Yes we won’t blame. No we will run. Yes we will march. No we won’t wait. Yes we will be firm. No we won’t fall. We won’t hesitate. A green field is the other side of chaos. The rustling wheat makes us hear the clock ticking. We accept all that.
And we are not allowed cannons or bayonets, only assault rifles.
Having already waged our civil war, now we are not listening.
Metallic cacophony rings in our ears.
II. American Beech: February 2025
Storms roll through the capital city one after another.
Sleet, snow, and rain batter the exposed
while midnight blue skies stand at attention
like the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Untold civil servants cower in their cubes
sheltering for the attacks, clinging desperately
to nearly shredded copies of their oath.
Responses include disbelief, paralysis, deferred resignation.
Aspiring oligarchs revel at the west winds whipping
the naked branches of the American Beech.
III. Saucer Magnolia Trees: Spring 2025
In March, the saucer magnolia trees
spill their fuchsia petals on the National Mall,
and the Administration begins bulldozing
$34 billion in international development programs.
The cherry trees, a gift from the Japanese, blossom,
pink blooms litter the ground at the tidal basin,
and the Administration forcibly terminates
$500 million to address egregious labor practices overseas.
Mayflowers bring June bugs, squashed
by a parade of combat boots and tanks
rumbling down a sparsely lined Constitution Avenue
to the tune of “Hail to the Chief” and 45 million U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Muggy July days witness the waterlilies’ and Lotus flowers’ peak bloom, while the Administration
celebrates the Nation’s Independence with a vicious blow
to 1,300 U.S. diplomats who worked to end human rights abuses abroad.
Now, the “dog days” of summer descend, the hydrangea droop,
and the sweltering heat from Sirius increases the risk of going mad,
while the U.S. Supreme Court shuts its 6.5-ton bronze doors
and congressmen and women ready for recess.
IV. Autumn Cache: October 2025
Sugar maples shed blood-red leaves,
Eastern gray squirrels forage for their cache of acorns,
42 million lose sleep, denied their daily bread.
Mist rises from fertile farmland, water droplets hang in the crisp autumn air,
Furloughed federal workers form lines at U.S. Navy Memorial Plaza
Welcoming free curry chicken and rice from World Central Kitchen.
Murmuration of European starlings catches our eyes
Looking west down Pennsylvania Avenue, where the East Wing lies in ruins,
like Tenochtitlan, demolished by conquerors to construct their cathedral.