What Rough Beast | Poem for June 22, 2019

Frances Mac
Women’s Empowerment Panel

An adaptation of Donald Trump’s remarks made on March 29, 2017

thank you
		(this is resented)

thank you
		(really she shouldn’t say this  but	
what rough roof
		she has to give
				in full
		to be edible	
		to seem a secret
		to tell a torn
thank you
thank you
		secret of pert
		secret of labor
		secret of 	
would have been
		she’s celebrating the art
			of speak and stay)

thank you very much
thank you
		(such history 
beginning each generation		
		the Adams who urge her – 	
				blessed roe –
		to live 		first round
			then as a maker untamed
		lain to the sky
			grit on the shoulders	
		a titan only by will)

thank you
thank you
thank you
		(will her daughter believe
			in herself or in nothing
		the leashed power of her	
			homeless
		she the owner of chances
		
she means to dare
			a bright truth
		for each and every one
			daughters	granddaughters
		to stop
		thanking you)

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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