by George Held
1.
Is this dream or nightmare
from which we awaken?
Do we live still in the age of Frost
or T***p? The answer is debatable,
But our destiny is unknown: do we have
the strength to preserve our ever-
challenged democracy, the republic
for which "Old Glory" stands?
2.
The old, glorious words Hemingway
declared dead in The Great War
need renewal or replacement,
but how replace “honor,” “integrity,”
“truth”—just uttering that word
in the Senate after the Insurrection
earned Romney applause— when “disgrace,”
“fake,” and “disaster” still ring in our ears
and lesser poets fill Inauguration Day
with shibboleth and cliché?
3.
“The Gift Outright,” while not the poet’s best,
still provides us food for thought—
“The land was ours before we were the land’s…”—
as we waken from the four-year dream
or nightmare.
George Held is a longtime contributor to TheNewVerse.News.