The Lesser-Known Presidential Assassinations
For Alyssa Trivett
I was born with lots of things across my hands,
snowflakes, blood,
water from the Rio Grande.
Nothing compromised the science
of each individual component,
snow-drifts grew larger,
started a family,
moved north, blocking tin-can Ford trucks on freeways.
The blood I took,
I added it to the bones from lesser-read pages in the Holy Book,
Adam had sisters, brothers, no-one spoke of,
Eve was married twice before.
The lesser-known presidential assassinations spring-up
from tributaries of the Rio Grande,
William McKinley -
A good Protestant
County Antrim name
with sizzling stagecoach wheels
in thickened rains - gives church-yard
its Sunday chatter.
James Garfield is mentioned in archives
where cigars, brandy
and the Witherspoon family
of New England make generous donations
to rebuild our church-hall blown down
in the winds and rains of 1908.
I was born with lots of things across my hands,
it's a map that remains,
its fauna blotchy
like dead animals hunting near a desert dirt-track
mutes and blind-folk
were too terrified to rub with tar.
This is the word of someone's Lord;
Praise Be
James Abram Garfield was elected 20th president of the US after being nominated by the Republican Party on the 36th ballot, but he only served for 6 1/2 months. On 2 July 1881 he was shot by Charles Guiteau and died 11 weeks later of sepsis, an inflammatory immune response triggered by infection. Guiteau was executed on 30 June 1882.
ReplyDeleteWilliam McKinley, Jr., was the 25th president. He was inaugurated in March 1897 and re-elected in 1900. But on 5 September 1901 amarchist Leon Czolgosz shot him in Buffalo, New York. He died of gangrene on 14 September. Czolgosz was tried 9 days later and executed on 29 October.
Alyssa Trivett, a popular poet from Chicago, has been a frequent contributor to duanepoetree.