INAUGURATION DAY
Today, despite what is dead
staring out across America I see since
Lincoln gunmen
nursing fantasies of purity betrayed,
dreaming to restore
the glories of their blood and state
despite what is dead but lodged within us, hope
under the lustrous flooding moon
the White House is still
Whitman’s White House, its
gorgeous front
full of reality, full of illusion
hope made wise by dread begins again
–Frank Bidart in Slate, 20 January 2009
Frank Bidart reading, links here.
