Second Coming No. 27 — Feb. 15, 2025
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Simon Leonard
Amerika
Amerika: The fascist or racist aspect of American society. From German Amerika; from the likening of the U.S. to Nazi Germany. The first known use of Amerika in the meaning defined above was in 1968 among New Left activists in the U.S.
—Merriam-Webster, adapted
In the Amerikan gallery of great men
we find this image
of a defiant patriot, who, finally and quite
by chance, found what to be outraged about.
The glaze of his face is stained
with strawberry blood; ungovernable,
his arm challenges that other world
to take a better shot, the clench
of his jaw final confirmation that
those unnumbered unnamables might strive,
but Amerika, my Amerika — continent twisted
out of coal, casinos and swimsuit beauty, land
of fake tans because we can, wrought
from the disappointment of factory dreams
by a blow-dried god refusing to give
up on his raw-hide truth, or his grip
on the sacred and mysterious uterus, this
Amerika is the privilege
they can never take away from me.
Just let them try, his furious triumph
tells us, and they will see
how my Amerika becomes me.
Simon Leonard is the author of the chapbook Before I Forget (Alien Buddha Press, 2022). His poems have appeared in Orbis, Envoi, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Roi Fainéant, Overheard, and other journals. Leonard teaches English at St. George’s The British International School in Cologne, Germany.
Indolent Books and editor Michael Broder are back with another poem-a-day series as a creative response to the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House. The plan is to continue for all 1460 days of the 47th American presidency.
Find out how to submit poems or flash prose pieces to Second Coming.
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