America! I do not vaunt my love for you, I have what I have.
-Walt Whitman
Apparently, I am a Goddamn Fool: I set all my clocks 10 min premature-
Which must mean I am American- As the only time I got is the time I Make myself, & Lord, even that ain’t
Never enuf. & America’s history (a form of time) Is kinda like a bus if you don’t think about it;
Hard plastic/ nooses/ dirty sneaker prints/ suspicion. So I feign my boredom & nod w/ that dissonant Hum, which is sorta like a hymn if you don’t think
About it either. I had an Uncle that would Ad-lib drunk along w/ the Monkee’s sprightly jangle –
“Take the last train to Auschwitz…” – & so I know All our history, no matter how hideous, can be Distilled to song. For a minute I thought it was you
@ the wheel, Harriet Tubman, bruises cuffing your wrists, Bandana corrallin’ a potent wound & bushel basket
Hair, but this ain’t no Railroad & that makes no sense. & this Dude to my right looks like Whitman w/ a cigar & belly full of Vaunted affections. Remember that 5th grade NYC field trip,
& J pissed on the Statue of Liberty? Man, if that ain’t Patriotic, I donno what is (Cuz I know being truly
American means never holdin’ nuthin back). & who knows, maybe I am nuthin’ more than Another fool God has damned, but so what;
History books & graveyards are glutted w/ Accurate wrist-watches/ jawbones/ & the wise.
I Am Alive & American; so I know my history is Both this ink which stains my fingers & This skin which I can never shed.
Sam Hutchings studies English and philosophy at Assumption College, Worcester, Mass. His influences are John Hodgen, Gregory Corso, Arthur Rimbaud, and Tony Hoagland.
