The Inauguration Polka

 

I refuse

…………….What does it matter if it’s been

…………….twenty or twenty-one weeks

to mourn tomorrow

in the shadow

……………. since he died?

…………….yet I still count the weeks

of the shadow across the stone

on a winter day without shadow

…………….since he took his life

…………….unable to make sense of the present

the symbols of the monuments

like steaming breath

…………….the future long and blank before him

…………….unable to fill it with the blessings of imagination

……..all words becoming lies

*

That’s me on a folding chair

in the back of the room

legs dangling in air

but eyes alert, already aware

room illuminated by blistered eye of the TV set

flickering voices

early returns showing Nixon leading Kennedy

That’s me still, all worlds becoming…