The American People [AUDIO]

October 16, 2020

When I hear you speak
of the American People
I ask myself what people
you’re speaking about.
And whether you’ve walked

a road like mine. Where,
more often than not,
you’ll see someone
setting out their trash,
raking leaves into a ditch.

Waving at a school bus,
after the plow drives by.
Someone who pledges
allegiance to the sky
and the honking,

migrating geese.
Looking for a cornfield
to lie down in
overnight.
Before they take flight

again in the morning.
All of them, one people
you could say.
If you’re not afraid
to see a goose as a person,

taking its place
in the shifting wing
of a flock. Each one
calling to the others
to follow the changing

leader. To stay strong
for the long road ahead.
Not a road really,
but a path through
the personable clouds.

A place to disappear in
for a while. Before coming out
the other side.
Which is what the candidate
seems to be saying

to the crowd looking out
their windows.
Trying to hear what he’s
promising. Between now
and election day.

When whoever wins
will beseech, address
the American People,
those shadows leaving
their marks on the snow.

To come together as if
then was then and now
is now.
As if I can believe
what I’m hearing.

Gary Margolis is Emeritus Executive Director of College Mental Health Services at Middlebury College. His third book, Fire in the Orchard, was nominated for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His latest book, Time Inside, is recently published.

Photograph by Gary Bendig.

Previous Story

The First Recital

Next Story

There Was Smoke in the Sunrise

Latest from Politics

A city skyline is bathed in an orange sunset.

Orange

By Susana Praver-Pérez. A political transition is time for reclamation.
Go toTop

More Like This

The Trail of Tears at 120 MPH

By Martha Highers. We’re breaking all speed limits to get to there.

A Dead Child is a Dead Child

By David Adès. The Israel-Hamas conflict is a war on children.