Devon Balwit
Make America Mexico Again
my hat says. People can’t
read this twist on white
words on a red hat until so close
their faces already register
condemnation before recomposing.
(This is a blue city after all.)
Why wear it? my son asks,
with a teen’s sensitivity
to disapproval. Good question—
perhaps to know what it’s like
to be depreciated on sight, judged
before a word’s been shared.
When it’s on, I never forget
it’s there. Uncomfortable,
I scan the street for hostility.
But of course, a hat’s removable
and freely-chosen—(Such a quick
return to brotherhood, The joke’s
on me, from those who pass)
—unlike skin.
Devon Balwit is the author of A Brief Way to Identify a Body (Ursus Americanus Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Poets Reading the News, The NewVerse News, The Ekphrastic Review, Peacock Journal, and more. For more of her poetry, reviews, collections, and chapbooks, visit her website, devonbalwitpoet.
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