Ellen S. Jaffe
They Came to the Capitol
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
—W.B. Yeats
We saw the rough beast slouch, slither, and stomp
its way to the Capitol,
heeding its misanthropic master,
past-master of lies, deceit, arrogance,
and mocking cruelty. They bought
into marching orders that never should have been ordered,
broke windows and laws,
bones and the sense of decency and patriotism,
even as they paraded sham-patriotic signs
and slogans. Did you see the Confederate flags
and the Auschwitz sweatshirt,
among the red-white-and-blue placards
waved by these ghost-white, sheet-white rebels,
storming unmasked in the middle of a pandemic?
Their violence was also naked, unmasked,
urged on by their hero, encouraged
by other legislators (even those who now cry foul).
The leader who incited them to “glory”
now reads teleprompter words in a flat, lifeless voice,
urging calm, denouncing the “heinous” act, promising peaceful transition—
after weeks of swearing how badly he’d been robbed.
But he ends his talk with animation:
our incredible journey is only beginning.
No, his journey is ending—finished, past, kaput,
over and done with.
And so, I hope, is his followers’—
may they see their folly before too late.
And may what slouches birthward in this city, this nation,
be human, not monster,
liberty and justice for all
a reality for all of us, each one of us
in our own skin and heart,
not another lie masquerading as the truth.
—Submitted on 01/09/2021
Ellen S. Jaffe is the author of Water Children (Mini Mocho Press, 2002), Skinny-Dipping With the Muse (Guernica Editions, 2014), and The Day I Saw Willie May (Pinking Shears Publications, 2019), as well as a young-adult novel, Feast of Lights (Sumach Press, 2006), and a book on writing, Writing Your Way (Sumach Press, 2001). Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century (Lummox Press, 2018). Jaffe grew up in New York City, and lives in Toronto.
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