Upon the Hundred-and-Eightieth Commemoration of Old Hickory’s Second Inaugural

Upon the Hundred-and-Eightieth Commemoration of Old Hickory’s Second Inaugural

 Eschew

            (God bless you.
             ¡Salud!),
Repudiate rather,
             The comic shuck and jive—
             The marionetted minstrelsy—
In exchange for three
            Hundred million in blue face,
            Waiting still
                        To breathe,
                                    Recalling the first slap,
                        To work or thrive,
                                    To subsist free of concocted
Liberty:  populist distraction.
  
Hopes collected—
            Empty glass bottles held
            For deposit refunds—
And placed on plastic counters
—To be refilled with juiceless
            aides and drinks and soda:
                        now fizzless, headless—
                        now sugarless
                        ales and whiskies—
To be shot to chards
            As target practice by
De-automated magazines,
            Dueler’s pistols only:
By disarmed militia.
                       
Nullification
Postponed.

Second coronation,

            Constitutional assault reified,
            Consolidated in spoils.
Second inaugural,
            Crisis with plenary
            Approval—unchecked King mob.
Second bank defunded,
            Debt re-deposited beneath
            Ceilings, over cliffs.
Second chance again,
            To uphold the first impression,
            To re-fight revolutions
                        Mythic for the second time:
                                    Hero of New Orleans.
           
As migrant red faces—
            Flush with defeat,
            With tearful diffusion—
            Turn to blue faces
            Then turn to grey,
            Then ashen,
                        Now dust.