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| No Kings, October 17, 2026 |
We are at the Village Green.
Hand-made signs displayed like
concert batons. Cars honk like geese.
Like bicycle horns. Like coronets.
Turns out, each vehicle’s horn has
distinct sound. Tinny. Bulbous. Sharp.
A thin wail. A robust shout. A stout
man on an opera stage. A US
composer once conducted a horn
concerto with twenty Mini-
Coopers. It is easy to imagine
on this brisk October afternoon.
Drivers are music makers too.
They Toot Toot Toot Toot. Ta Ta Ta.
Beep Beep Beep Beep. Passengers wave,
clap, shout out No Kings. This Is What
Democracy Looks Like. We wave
back, save our voices for the next
chant. The bus bound for Oneonta
unfurls foghorn sounds as it passes.
One man bellows No Kings But Jesus!!
Another yells Vote like your life
depends on it. We hurl those words
back in agreement. Vote Early! Vote!!
A Mariachi band arrives in full
regalia, guitars at the ready.
Celito Lindo! Ay Ay Ay Ay!
Harmonies filter through chilled air.
Tourists take in the scene. Some nod,
Smile. Others look away, as if their
purchases have somehow made them
complicit in this moment. Someone
with a drum begins to snap snap
tap tap. We’re all a swing band now.
We’re playing for keeps. Praying to
be heard. Staying upbeat. Ay Ay Ay Ay!
Mary K O’Melveny, a happily retired attorney, is the author of five poetry collections and a chapbook. What Remains? is just out from Broadstone Books. Mary’s award-winning poems have appeared in many print and on-line literary journals and anthologies and on international blog sites, including The New Verse News. Mary’s collection Flight Patterns was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her book Merging Star Hypotheses (2020) was a semi-finalist for The Washington Prize, sponsored by The Word Works. Mary has been three-times nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is an active member of the Hudson Valley Women’s Writing Group and her poetry appears in the Group’s two published anthologies An Apple In Her Hand and Rethinking The Ground Rules. Mary lives with her wife near Woodstock, New York.
