Psalm

A poem about writer's block amid the rise of fascism in America. Published in ANMLY Magazine, Issue #41.

I haven’t written in months / A poet

should be a prismatic, faceted chrysalis

Cabochon sentiment is vulgar, unpublishable

“No more breakup poetry, please”

Say the glittering butterflies / And so

I haven’t written in months

The political climate leaves me speechless

I want to hurl breakup poems-slash-javelins

at the politicians who revile me / And

pin their wings for once / Help me

I’m trapped in a bruising marriage

with this red-handed Nation / I can’t leave Him

He beats me into silence

I play the piano when He’s out at the bars

He hates my music / I have no money

I haven’t written in months

I miss hearing birdsinging outside my bedroom

at 4am in summer darkness / Open-windowed

five years ago in the old port / Watermuzak

Before I entered my husband’s manse,

forests on every street / Maples / Dogwoods

Rivers of pollen in the gutters / Pure white

In this silence, I dream I slay the dragon

But nobody wants poems of weary nights

They want Baccarat genius, Hermès velvet

God shrive me / I haven’t written in months

Pentimento of sin waketh me compline to lauds

Hard to wake from my grief to pen iridescence

when I’m faced with losing my Social Security

and Civil Security / and Whatnot / I grow scutes

I’ve stopped waiting to be granted Mercy

by anyone who meets me / God shrive my mayfly-

self / I have that kind of personality I guess

Save the jet’s passengers / rob their purses

My mistake for thinking God would grant Mercy

like a hydrant spraying in August city swelter

Below these wings / I went to a model train fair

My mother drove me / How nice of her

She thinks her horned, decrepit politicians would save us

from their kindred / if only they held a Supermajority

I can’t convince her otherwise / I fear her

Look at all the little trains run and run

around in their same old tracks without an exit

just like our lives

Author's Note

Published by ANMLY, October 2025 Issue
https://anmly.org/ap41/sean-eaton/