Nina Padolf
Veterans Day: After the Trump-shit Blows
I think today of all of the people that “served our country,”
whom will they be serving now?
As the trump-shit blows—
and many feel like we’ve be slapped down
to some nasty trump job,
I think of the women who had to wear uniforms
in a world dominated by men.
Skirts and hose, glossed lips, painted fingertips
vulnerable legs exposed flesh.
Pants were for the men.
How do I manage to salute a man that fingers women
just because he can?
I feel violated, I can’t seem to sleep it off.
It’s a nightmare
in replay, his-story repeats
while the trump-shit blows.
I am raw, confused, and dazed.
He says, “Make America what again?”
I think today of all of the people who came here seeking freedom.
I think about the people who were here first.
Whom are we “serving” and what are we really being served?
Nina Padolf is the co-editor (with Deena November) of the upcoming anthology, Nasty Women and Bad Hombres, forthcoming from Six Gallery Press. Her poems have appeared in Pittsburgh City Paper and The Dandelion Review and her short stories for children have appeared in Carnegie Mellon University’s Project Listen. She holds a PhD in educational leadership from Argosy University, an MA in teaching from Chatham College, and is pursuing an MFA in creative writing from Carlow University. Padolf teaches writing at the The Art Institute of Pittsburgh Online.
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