A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the current occupant of the White House
Gail Thomas
Nowhere to Hide
When my three-year-old ears heard
hooves clop and wagons creak
on our unpaved street, I dove
under my parents’ bed. Fear
of the ragman who shouted
Rags, bring out your rags.
I was warned to be good or
he’d come for a naughty girl.
Now, my old ears hear
the rattle and whirl of wind
banging windows. Not fear
of the storm, but howls of
the bully-child who would
be king of white America
who betrays
grandmothers and grandfathers
who worked underground, laid
tracks, poured steel, taught
children, planted wheat,
soldiered,
who paid with taxes
and blood.
When we are silent, we are still afraid.
So it is better to speak,
wrote Audre Lorde.
So we say black/gay/trans
Say race/ethnicity/immigrant
Say women/bias/gender
Say climate crisis
Say injustice
The rag man of our age
erases history, recycles chaos.
When our voices drown out
his lies, we will hear
red/white/blue
again.
Gail Thomas is the author of Leaving Paradise (Human Error Publishing, 2022) and five other poetry collections that have garnered a number of awards. Her poems have appeared in One Art, Summerset Review, SWWIM, Nixes Mate, among other journals, as well as in anthologies. A former high school English teacher and college professor, Thomas lives in Western Massachusetts and teaches poetry with the Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop in Northampton.
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.
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