A Triumphal Arch?
Poet Dale K. Nichols lends some rhyme and rhythm to the pro-democracy movement. Proceeds from paid subscriptions go to support pro-democracy legal organizations
Get the Book!
Click here to order your copy of Never Trump Poetry: The Book.
Dale K. Nichols
A Triumphal Arch?
Trump’s Triumphal Arch if built
at two hundred fifty feet tall
would dwarf its Parisian namesake and block
the view of the South from the Mall
the Confederate side of the Bridge t’would rise
to shutter Abe Lincoln’s gaze
of the Arlington House of Robert E. Lee
that once was built by slaves
and that of Arlington National where
an ocean of white attests
to battles that ended the bondage of blacks
putting thirty-four states to the test
another display of vanity
another slap in the face
from a man who’s rewriting a nation’s past
to reverse its progress on race
Editor’s Note
by Michael Broder
Good poem, right?
Thirty-four is the number of states in the union at the time of the Civil War. I must have been fiddling with my Bobby Sherman lunch box the day we covered that in fifth grade social studies class.
If you have any other historical questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments. I will happily answer.
—MB
Get the Book!
Click here to order your copy of Never Trump Poetry: The Book.
About the team
In the words of Dale K. Nichols, Poet
Whatever I might feel about the merit of particular aspects of the MAGA agenda, I believe that Trump, as the movement’s standard-bearer and chief instigator, is a clear and present danger to the future of America and our way of life. That we the people decided to elect him to a second term points to certain dark undercurrents in our nation’s psyche that had been pushed to the shadows for decades until they were recently coaxed back into broad daylight. For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, I believe that Tom Riddle has reemerged as Lord Voldemort, and we Muggles are in the midst of an ugly Wizarding War that has already suffered many casualties.
In the words of Michael Broder, Editor
I am a gay white male and lifelong registered Democrat. I took this project on because I believed Dale’s work could create community around the kind of satiric political poetry that used to be more prevalent in American life.While I am indeed a Harry Potter fan, my pop-culture metaphor for the Orange Menace is Burgermeister Meisterburger, the sadistic, oppressive, and abusive mayor of Sombertown who despises toys—and will arrest anyone who plays with or owns a toy—in the classic 1970 stop-motion Christmas television special, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.
Well said!
The Arch of Defeat, this is. I keep thinking of a lunchbox. No comment fit for print; just silently screaming. Our own Washington Square with its monument not driven through (thankfully), but the view south from it at least partially obscured by whatever NYU has thrown up. Not sure what to do with the Arch of Titus (looking things up in Wikipedia land). Vanity — Dale’s perfect word for this. I pray the mirror will crack.