What Rough Beast | Poem for June 10, 2019

Frances Mac
250th Anniversary of the Birth of President Andrew Jackson

An adaptation of Donald Trump’s remarks made on March 15, 2017

what to tell
of a son
his mark
what is it
a heritage to mar
a cork in years

to tell that
backwoods glory
of grit
of the frontier
fatal

what was it
was the son
defied
arrogant
familiar

to know
the captured
shine of it
the gashes
and scars
the blows

that son
the people
he drove
from america
that he claimed

merging like clay
the sickening story
into triumph
the act warned
of the removed
the force
to sweep out

what was accused
is a portrait now
a great magnolia
a people
their dignity
the flawed justice
bestowed

remember
the muscle
and bone
of country

Poems by Frances Mac have appeared in Epigraph Magazine, Burnt Pine Magazine, The MacGuffin, and Santa Clara Review. She hails from the Texas Hill Country and currently lives in Washington, DC.

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