A Nation Holds Its Breath - By: Matthew Depew

Day One:

the pen slashes—

Twenty. Six. Orders.

ink, not thought,

bleeds across parchment.

Questions?

(there are none)

Eliminated:

trans lives,

under a banner stitched from lies—

“feminism,”

they call it.

What do they call the silence?

Borders tighten.

“Maximum vetting,”

he says,

as the doors close

on hope,

on freedom,

on futures.

A hand waves,

pardons fall

like confetti—

1,500 violent rioters

cheer in their wake.

The Capitol weeps,

its wounds still raw.

We pull back, pull away,

from the world’s hands:

WHO?

Paris?

No.

The globe spins colder

without us.

The camera stares:

his signature sprawls,

blind,

blank,

bereft of meaning.

“What is it?” he asks—

too late.

TikTok ticks

a delayed

doom.

A political ploy

Misunderstood by the masses.

Behind the curtain:

facades fracture,

truth whispers,

fear shouts.

A country waits,

chained to a pen

that scrawls without reason.

A nation watches,

As the ink dries into scars.

All in a day’s work.

Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.

This poem describes the orders and acts Donald Trump put into place on the first day of his presidency. It truly emanates the pain and fear that me, my family, and my friends felt regarding him assuming power once more. Many of his most concerning policies he put into place I made sure to include, but more than that I also included his total disregard for humanity with which he enforced many of these mandates. For many of these agreements that he signed off on, he didn't even bother reading the material he was signing before putting his pen to the paper which made me all the more fearful.

Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.

I began writing this poem the night of Trump's inauguration, and finished it by the following morning, at which point Trump had become the president with the most first-day implementations in America's documented history by a sizable margin. I watched as he signed these agreements and restrictions against the American people, researched many of these topics, and took note of anything that had the chance of jeopardizing the safety or livelihood of my and my friends. Then, I just let my emotions fuel my writing. It's written in a very cumulative manner, in which I highlighted the main topic at hand (the fact that he had signed 26 orders in one day) at the start of the poem, then digressed into the individual topics that were of major concern. I also, as many of my friends were quick to question me about when reading this piece, never explicitly mention Trump's name, and this was not on accident. At the time of writing this piece, I genuinely felt so disgusted with him, I couldn't stomach writing his name, so I just stuck to the far more accusatory "he."

Why did you choose to write this poem?

I wrote this poem because I was horrified. I was horrified for my rights and liberties as an American citizen. I was horrified for the safety and liveliness of my friends and my family. I was horrified for the future of my nation, and I needed to communicate how I was feeling with the world. The goal of this piece was to ultimately enlighten people of just how dangerous Trump was going to be in office, and to warn people of the potential future of our country, should we not acknowledge what was going on with our government.

Do you have any tips or anything to share with the youth writers who may be reading this?

As an unpublished youth writer myself, I don't entirely feel qualified to give advice to others, but if I may, don't focus your writing on conforming to traditional poetry styles or values, but, rather, make it personal to you.