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| From “The Parade,” 1957, from Si Lewen’s Parade: An Artist’s Odyssey (2016) via Literary Hub |
Merkel warns of populists’ rise in Europe —AP, May 28, 2019
from the trenches.
they rise,
the easy translucent stride
of ghost-men
in gas masks
run the cobblestone
streets between
the ferrying buses,
old France, old Spain,
dust brown boots
weaponized fences
torched children
shot out of chimneys
"La Marseillaise" sung
backward, the gaze
of the European
upon the hard American
wearing bones
around his neck
a ring of fiery stones
Druid masters
wearing blood-drenched
capes calling for
crusade war
war upon war
gardens of dead
silent proletariat
families marched
by illiterate armies
who never spoke
or learn the proper sound
each word passing
like a market ticker
above them Merkel,
T***p, Putin, Macron
angel of Patton
and Robespierre,
dark angel of Bormann,
warned and warning
electronic horses
galloping over glass churches
shattered idols and guns
replacing each letter
on the keys
and the irreverent typist
culling new plots ending
in plots unmarked,
unedited, whole,
unpublished, divine.
Alejandro Escudé published his first full-length collection of poems My Earthbound Eye in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches high school English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.