Poetry

Jacob Morch photo

By

Scott Dalgarno

Ruin Nation

With the subtlety of grave-

diggers running a fleet

of backhoes, men

in suits are busy gutting

everything. They pontificate

on clean coal, climate change,

the ACA, and insist the world

they’re birthing will be

something special.

Haven’t chimpanzees taught

us that lying is as old

as language itself?

They’re demolishing

the Department

of Education and I imagine

Devos opening a pre-school

in the meth house across

the street from me.

It’s looking like Hell,

without the fires

and the beatings.

They talk a lot about

Christian values

and I remember that saints

days are not birthdays,

they’re death anniversaries.

Requiem aeternam dona eis

Domine, they sing,

I can’t hear them.

I’m nailing my coffin

shut from the inside.

Scott Dalgarno

Scott Dalgarno writes out of Salt Lake City, Utah, where he is a registered Dem but wonders constantly if he should switch to Republican so he can at least have some say in the primaries.