Jessica Ramer
Red Beast Slouching
The center cannot hold—and I rejoice
that our center will not hold—
although I grieve the loss of what is good in us—
Workers bolting steel into ambulances
Boy Scouts trading patches at jamborees
Robotics competitions in high schools—
As I grieve the coming loss of what I love about us—
Lone houses on prairies
Spaceships hurtling past Pluto
Plain talk in town diners—
And baptize myself in the vastness of America:
Horseback trails in Appalachia
Ponds dotting New England
Sea grape trees and saw grass
Humpback whales feeding near Sitka—
Even as devolution becomes the phosphorus bomb illuminating our darkness:
Tomahawks and Apaches our exports
Shuttered factories our landscape
Prison archipelagoes our industry
Philando Castile shot in our streets.
Yet, I rejoice—in the guarded way parents
celebrate the birth of their fifteen-year-old
daughter’s child—that collapsing rubble
renders our boulevards almost impassable
and slows that slouching red beast
shuffling the return path from Bethlehem.
Jessica Ramer is a PhD student at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Writers.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you want to support the mission and work of Indolent Books, consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Indolent Arts Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity.
Join our mailing list to receive news, updates, and special offers from Indolent Books.