Official inaugural poems are a strange beast. There have only been five of them and the one we recognize as the first, Robert Frost’s “The Gift Outright,” wasn’t composed for President Kennedy’s inauguration. Frost recited it when the sun’s glare off the snow made the poem he’d written, “Dedication,” impossible to read. But perhaps the real problem with inaugural poems is that they’re too connected to a moment which celebrates rather than questions or critiques power, and in times like these, where we face governance by people who seem at best uninterested in and at worst hostile to the democratic and social progress this country has made over the last 200+ years, it is our duty as poets to stand as witness and critic.
So for this inauguration, we have solicited work from fourteen poets, and we’ll run these poems as features daily from January 7 through January 20. We hope you will celebrate this work and share it with your friends and family, colleagues, and acquaintances. The poems will go live on the homepage of The Rumpus at 3 p.m. PT during weekdays and at noon PT on weekends. After the jump, find a complete list of the poets whose work will be featured in this series.
1/7: Leila Chatti
1/8: Kaveh Akbar
1/9: Julie Marie Wade
1/10: Jaswinder Bolina
1/11: JoAnn Balingit
1/12: Rajiv Mohabir
1/13: Lynn Melnick
1/14: Hanif Willis Abdurraqib
1/15: Eve L. Ewing
1/16: Julian Randall
1/17: Brian Oliu
1/18: Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
1/19: Kyle Dargan
1/20: Airea Matthews
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Inauguration Dirge
by
John J. Dunphy
You lied to us.
You, the person who told us “Love Trumps Hate.”
Last year we watched in disbelief
when Hate kicked Love’s wimpy little ass so hard
it still orbits the earth like a satellite.
The demagogue soon to be sworn in as president
spewed hate like an infection spews pus.
He ridiculed a reporter with a disability
and people thought it was funny.
He demonized Mexicans and Muslims
and crowds roared their agreement.
He belittled and objectified women
and his supporters — even the women — said,
“Well, that’s just the way a man with balls talks.”
The Ku Klux Klan endorsed him
and it didn’t bother his supporters in the least.
The United States died on 11/8/16.
It will be buried on 1/20/17.
Tombstone inscription: Hate Trumped Love. Deal With It, Stupid.
Memorials can be made to a charity of one’s choice.
As Real as it Gets: November 2016
by Cinda Kornblum
1
Reality TV: not real, just scripted interactions.
People bargain, insult, throw each other under the bus.
Designers stitch & bitch in a pressure cooker
And use the wall of branded accessories “wiselyâ€.
Chopped. Botched. Shark Tank.
Cupcakes, Hoarders, Fixer Uppers.
Pit Bulls & Parolees, Cooks & Cons.
2
People wander around, drive around
Plugged into phones, texts, and games
Not here, not now,
Startled by reality
As the car veers then smashes.
“One day you’re in and the next day…YOU’RE OUT!â€
3
Two widows; two realities.
My husband, Allan, battled cancer for years
Better, then worse, then better, then worse,
For better or worse,
His cancer evolving, outsmarting drug after drug.
While we believed once more he’d pull through
Nurses all-too-familiar with the stages of death
Struggled to show us the reality ahead.
Rebecca’s husband, Steve, died suddenly of “indigestionâ€
(obviously, not really that) in bed beside her.
She woke to a new world, unimagined,
Unpredictable, unbelievable, like a ton of bricks.
How can that which seems most unreal
Be the ultimate reality?
A question she asks daily as she walks in circles,
Counter clockwise to turn back time.
Hindsight is 20-20
but can never be turned into foresight.
Widowhood is one meal at a time,
One day at a time
Walking through a murky hallway after
One door has closed
Waiting for a new door to open
4
Is “walking it back†like those counter clockwise circles?
Tweets, more tweets, deleted tweets – all too real.
Previous statements can’t be erased the way a Catholic marriage is annuled.
Deleted emails drove the campaign – “lock her up, lock her up,†for what?
For scrubbed & bleached personal e-mails like “let’s have lunchâ€
Or “Which shows more power: a red, white, or blue pantsuit?â€
What can’t be found, we can only imagine.
And now we know our imaginations have been hacked.
Facebook fed us news
From a menu of our own preconceptions
Spooning faux news
(news of the foes, tricky fox news)
To my Iowa family who believed in Trump’s promises.
Reality has been broken into many streams–
Some of them are poisoned.
5
In a post-truth world,
Distinctions became murky:
What’s real? What’s not real?
Everything’s something in between like “not reallyâ€
Feelings are real but must be trumped by objective facts
When it comes to ecology, economy, and evolution.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander†still applies.
6
Back in the Toothpaste Press days,
We printed a postcard of Dave Morice’s poem:
“The reality special
is coming on down the line….
Woo! Woo!â€
How many times I’ve thought of these words –
Bracing for the reality of a test, spring budget season,
PeopleSoft implementation – (hell on roller skates)
Now facing the most surreal:
A presidential reality TV star
Choosing cabinet members
Who reject the missions of their respective offices.
Will this election lead to infection or ejection?
Time will tell, but it’s clear:
The reality special has already left the station.
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