MY COUNTRY FOR A MEDAL

by Anne Herrick

Partially based on lines from Shakespeare's Richard III, Act 5

Cartoon by Ann Telnaes

My medal, 

            my medal!  

                        America undone for my medal.

 

            Forsooth, sire, I will assist you

            in claiming this precious gold

 

Loyalist, I have lain my life upon this medal

I have set seven squabbles to peace—

Nay—I have in fact settled eight.

I must therefore have my medal.  

I will, I must, doom America for my medal.

 

Courageous Sire, it is Norway 

which has undone your gold,

I must find the wretch 

that decreed the providence of this prize

 

Great God of Heaven, say amen to all!

I will usurp, I will slay, this Danish bloody dog

which hath denied what has always been my due.

I will pluck this traitor’s foreign Greenland

and put its gold upon my oval mantelpiece.

 

            On bended knee I needs say, my Gracious Sire 

            that Denmark is not quite where is Norway —

            it is avowedly smallest, in the cold North Sea.

 

Oh, Slave, I will choose who is to blame.

I will push Denmark to weep in streams of blood.

I will save Greenland from Denmark’s yoke of tyranny,

dig far into the bowels of its land,

will cast its destiny with the doomed dome of America.

I know that true hope flies with swallow’s wings,
that it is the meaner creatures that make kings.

Anne Herrick has published a few poems and prose in the US and UK.

GRĒNLAND UNFÆST (GREENLAND OFF-BALANCE)

by Zumwalt

Cartoon by Anne Derenne

President Trump announced in a social media post on Saturday morning his latest strategy to get control of Greenland: He is slapping new tariffs on a bloc of European nations until they come to the negotiating table to sell Greenland. —The New York Times, January 17, 2026

“Greedy for Greenland,” the great leader uttered,

Musing on military modes of grabbing.

“Shale and shield,” he shouted out loud,

White House words woke up the world!

Old World earls offered their swords,

Rallying round the Realm of the Danes.

Pushing back promptly against pressure and might,

Frederiksen fierce, flashed her reply:

“If force is flaunted on frozen shores,

Strikes from the States shatter our league;

Broken the bridges of brotherhood built,

NATO is nuked—if neighbors clash!”

Damning the Danes in deep standoff,

“Lay down the law!” the leader swore.

Taxing with tariffs those tribes that balk:

"Gobble up Greenland, get all we can;

If that game goes bad, go grab Iceland!"

Zumwalt's poetry explores themes of alienation, shifting reality, and personal adaptation. Recent work has appeared at Ink Sweat and Tears.