-After President Biden’s farewell address
“I love America; you love it, too.”
A command, not a statement.
A tacit agreement: scratch my back,
Stay invisible.
America, you can’t take my love,
And you do not have it.
I have no love to give a dream.
You are the peril; we are the promise
You broke.
Robert Eric Shoemaker (he/him) is a poet, translator, and interdisciplinary artist. He is the author of three books: Ca’Venezia (Partial Press, 2021), an artist’s book of hybrid writing and visual art; We Knew No Mortality (Acta Publications, 2018), poetry and memoir; and the poetry chapbook 30 Days Dry (Thought Collection Publishing 2015).