Diane Ray
Capitol Offense
The omens were unhinged when prophecy blossomed
and angry minions, from near and afar’s alternative
universe of information spun, deplaned, detrained,
poured from busses, parked their cars and swarmed
like locusts come to their most fabled chomping ground,
descending in plain sight of a government
that conveniently left the apertures appetizingly
ajar or breachable. See footage of the arm-raising
anarchist perched so regally in the Speaker’s seat. Ritual
revenge morphed into melee: a woman was sacrificed.
The man who if he could be would be king or oligarch
was supported to the last lick, pre-invasion, by one hundred
elected Representatives throwing up flack to shroud a sky
they damn well knew had politically turned blue.
They all lost bigly on this one, accidentally shooting
In the chest their fearless Disruptor’s
2024 plans. The Liberty Lady due North
looks on and hoists her torch.
—Submitted on 01/06/2021
Diane Ray‘s poems and essays have appeared in Cirque, Canary, Sisyphus, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Common Dreams, and other journals, as well as in anthologies including Sheltering in Place (Staring Problems Press, 2020). Ray, a native New Yorker, lives near Green Lake in Seattle and works as a psychologist.
SUBMIT to Transition: Poems in the Afterglow via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value Poems in the Afterglow, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.
