America, America, Burning Bright
Bright Inaugural Day, Washington
The U.S. presidential inauguration in January will be one for the ages. LAUREN FREY concludes her series of election-related verse with a hat tip to Langston Hughes.
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- 2008 (Of Recent Note)
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PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS PIASCIK
Bright Inaugural
Day, Washington:
How’d they do it
These two shining stars?
Chicago man, he did not say—
That someone else need pave the way—
He’s retired his cigarette box
and his PDA.
Bright inaugural
Day, Washington:
It was he who led
That mass of followers
Those followers came
To make amends—
They’ll keep following too,
To support his ends.
Bright inaugural
Day, Washington:
Who taught one
Black man to change today?
His grandmother
Showed the boy the way—
Stood right by him
Till just before Election Day.
Bright inaugural
Day, Washington:
When it is all over
And the cameras point back at the talking heads
and the oath all taken
and the last congratulations been said
and three ladies
Walk with him toward their beds
All off down Pennsylvania Avenue
That huge White House will stand,
For our might
Turning the corner
All it took to get here—
This man we’re celebrating
Held so dear, so dear
To everyone this win empowers,
To those who made him into a man—
It was all our cheers that formed
This one man’s
Inaugural stand.
Bright inaugural
Day, Washington.
—Published December 2, 2008
