Responding to Trump’s Executive Order 14172: “Restoring names that honor American greatness”

Paddled on an upturned whale to America,

from Putingrad to Tin City, across the American
Strait, waded knee-deep in the West American

Ocean, into the 51st State, through American

Columbia, the badlands of Greater America

soon to be made good. Crossed into real America

at the 49th parallel. Breakfasted on American

pastries in beautiful Boeing City, spoke American

without a dialect to tourists from South America,

a place also called Colombia, a suburb of America

built from narcodollars. Downed crisp American

beer and porked on Freedom Fries and American

pizza in a counterfeit of a catchpenny American-

themed pub in the boondocks of Americatown.

Bartered two pints of O-neg to a dour American

bloodbanker so I could fly Business on American

Airlines down to the Big Easy. Felt the American

Quarter throbbing with Old-World Americans

looking for the indigenous music of America;

saw footage on the news of a grim American

stand-off three blocks from us, Americans

shooting at other Americans, nothing Americans

haven’t seen a hundred times across America.

Rode a Greyhound through the paunch of America

to the brimming shores of the East American

Ocean. Drank too much beer, caught American

flu from an impassioned girl I American-

kissed but didn’t fuck (excuse my American).

Was finagled in my cups into a game of American

roulette by an amputee, took shots for American

courage but shat my pants. Discovered America,

put it back before anyone noticed. Saw America

set fire to its own middle, watched Americans

clinging to both ends singing God Bless America.

Andy Jackson is the author of four collections of poetry including The Saints Are Coming! (Blue Diode, 2020) and Games Night (Red Squirrel Press, 2023). He is the editor/co-editor of a dozen poetry anthologies, and also co-ordinates a number of online poetry projects including Otwituaries, The Lonely Funeral, New Boots and Pantisocracies, and Project Abeona. www.andyjacksonpoet.co.uk
This piece is Executive Disobediences #4 in a series of poems responding to Trump’s Executive Orders 
Poetry submissions to thursdaypoems@gmail.com