07.13.2018
Weekly poem on Trump Presidency
Tina Cane
(Y)Our American House
(Y)our American house is a monument to industry a tender age facility
with a skeleton of wood white house brown hands any punk hotel
of painters my parents put us in rent control is in the way of my life the way Warhol
temperament and strife tenement stabilization and gentrified rationalizations
can be a place to hang your hat
my bones are not happy today you say the box of bones
in the basement are bird I say the skull on the shelf jaw of jackal artifice and artifact
national or nationwide a house is not a Walmart a box is not a shop my babies want me home
geography is fucked as in the story of a toaster some shit you can’t believe how they used to give
toasters away for free at the bank of all places with checking & savings but if you want
free lunch turns out you need a plan to open up show up you know what I mean
be vulnerable make nice(r) to build a house you better believe the boy you’re with will hold
together not break you into pieces like some strapping dumb luck rolled into one
nation under one roof of stars a common constellation for all
---
Tina Cane is the founder/director of Writers-in-the-Schools, RI and serves
as poet laureate of Rhode Island where she lives with her husband
and their three children. Her book, Body of Work, is forthcoming from Veliz Books.
---
