Ghazal for the Late, Great America
Gold leaf will not liberate you, America,
from this ten-year migraine. The hour is late, America.
The “shining city upon a hill” has doused
its lights to dusky. Not great, America.
All of those billions and still stuffing your face
with Big Macs? Your heart rate, America!
I read, It’s like being in bed with Jekyll and Hyde.
Only a masochist would date America.
The K-shaped economy: when the rich put on hoods
to slaughter the penniless. X-rated America.
The Pequod was melting pot, peppered with people—
your neighbor is your shipmate, America.
Stop blaming the tired, the hungry and poor
for your callowness, O third-rate America.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John Locke walk into a bar—
Tom Paine was your true prophet, America.
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Marc Alan Di Martino is a poet and translator whose books include Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell’Arco (World Poetry, 2024 – Winner of the 2025 Joseph Tusiani Italian Translation Prize & 2025 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation finalist), Love Poem with Pomegranate (Ghost City, 2023), Still Life with City (Pski’s Porch, 2022) and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in Apple Valley Review, Bad Lilies, The Shore and many other journals and anthologies. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best Literary Translations 2027. Currently a reader for Baltimore Review, he lives in Italy.
Bravo!
“Stop blaming the tired, the hungry and poor
for your callowness” – the go-to here, to villainize anyone outside their circle and stoke fear. Thank you, Marc.
Thank you, Betsy.