FIVE DAYS INTO THE NEW ADMINISTRATION

Alexandra van de Kamp

and I’m fluent in the words Executive Order, its acronym, EO, and, as a '60's kid, know it has little to do with Electric Light Orchestra, unless, by electric, we mean endlessly on edge, veins aglitter with news-minnows.  Five days into this new game show, and there’s already an eloquent, cascading disorder; an eddying, occupying flora overgrowing grasses and skies, fogging up our panes.  Five days in, I’m looking at the squirrels, their bodies calligraphing the trees, for some philosophical tidbits of wisdom to outpace my brain.  I’m asking the clouds how they buoy despite their soggy weight. I’m renegotiating what feels safe.  And today, safe feels like a shriveled postage stamp, running with ink.  It feels like the overflowing clawfoot tub in a BBC mystery when the mother slits her wrists in the bath, expecting to be found—her blood a dark lily swaying in the water as her daughter arrives, witnesses what she’s done.  Five days in, and I’m wondering: Am I this woman, misjudging the time I have left?  I want a vaster, faster-reacting vocabulary for doubt and dread.  What about lead-bout, hammered-heart, dead-gut? And despite all this, here you are on a Saturday morning, wearing a bright blue pullover and drinking coffee calmly, anchored to our small history, our kitchen—my other voice, my trembling wind socket, my skin chime.

"Five Days into the New Administration" was a breakthrough because I learned political anger could be channeled through a poem with playful aspects, like referencing Electric Light Orchestra while thinking of the onslaught of Executive Orders signed by the Trump Administration. I also saw that a political poem could have a certain elasticity and could include a scene from a BBC TV series to comment on the unfolding and highly disturbing political atmosphere.  Lastly, writing this poem helped me find my voice in a challenging time.