Monday, February 15, 2021

A Room of My Own: Gunshot and White Noise Tanka

written in response to the Verdict in the Second Impeachment Trial (of the InciterInChief/former "Make America Great Again" reality show host)

remember the crack
of the solitary gunshot ...
slowly these words
become white noise
on this windy night of snow

Added:

caw-caw-caw of crows
the impeachment verdict
on a starless night



Six hours after the attack on January 6th, after the carnage and mayhem was shown on every television screen in America, President Trump told his supporters to “remember this day forever.” I ask the American people to heed his words: remember that day forever. But not for the reasons the former president intended.

Remember the panic in the voices over the radio dispatch; the rhythmic pounding of fists and flags at the chamber doors.

Remember the crack of the solitary gunshot.

Remember the hateful and racist Confederate Flag flying through the halls of our Union.

Remember the screams of the bloodied officer crushed between the onrushing mob and a doorway to the Capitol, his body trapped in the breach.

Remember the three Capitol Police Officers who lost their lives.

Remember that those rioters actually succeeded in delaying Congress from certifying the election.

Remember how close our democracy came to ruin.

My fellow Americans: remember that day, January 6th, forever—the final, terrible legacy of the 45th President of the United States and undoubtedly our worst.

Let it live on in infamy, a stain on Donald John Trump that can never, never be washed away.

1 comment:

  1. It might be interesting to do a comparative reading of my new year haiku sequence, "The End of the Beginning," accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2021/01/special-feature-selected-poems-for-new.html

    to Trump Party faithfuls, including Trump himself and the Trumps in the wall-to-wall mirrors of his presidential suite in the Trump Tower.

    dying of the year
    his face shadowed by the brim
    of a MAGA hat

    new year's clean-up
    a pile of Four More Years
    dumped on the curbside

    "2024 run"
    in a world of falling snow
    the sound of wind

    ReplyDelete