Melinda Thomsen
Constitutional Crisis
The U.S. Constitution
And Fascinating Facts About It
stays by my desk, its wave of red
stripes, white stars, and navy field
calms me like lemon balm tea.
Khizr Khan waved a similar one
at the Democratic Convention.
“Donald Trump, you’re asking
Americans to trust you with their
future. Let me ask you, have you even
read the United States Constitution?”
George Washington said,
“The Constitution is the guide,
which I never will abandon.”
In Gilbert Stuart’s Washington
portrait, books pile up beside
the table leg, including, you
guessed it: Constitution
And Laws Of The United States.
President Trump says, No.
“It’s a very rough system.
It’s an archaic system…
It’s really a bad thing for the country.”
Librarians mobilize to Bury
the White House in Books.
Librarians read writing on walls.
They urge Trump to, too.
I sent Jane Austen’s Persuasion,
a view of women with no rights
and felt the shame of sending
this to a shameless President.
So, here we stand: a citizen imploring
our President to read the U.S. Constitution,
librarians organizing a massive book
drop, thousands of scientists marching
to protest ignorance, and a French President
inviting American climate change
researchers, entrepreneurs, and engineers
to emigrate to France. Witness a nerd revolt,
or worse, our precious dweebs emigrating
as they flash their good-byes with travel-sized
constitutions, and we take a last look at thinking.
Melinda Thomsen is the author of the chapbooks Naming Rights (Finishing Line Press, 2008) and Field Rations (Finishing Line Press, 2011). Her poetry has appeared in Heliotrope, Poetry East, Big City Lit, New York Quarterly, Heart of the Order: Baseball Poems, Blues for Bill: A Tribute to William Matthews, and Token Entry: New York City Subway Poems.
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