Lamentations Upon the Death of a Nation
After Robert Rauschenberg’s “Retroactive I” 1963

“Oh, it’s a fine and useless enterprise trying to fix destiny.” —Kingsolver

I was ten.

The nation had just witnessed a riderless horse, a reversed boot,
a black-veiled widow with her children in blue.
Wide-eyed, we stood at attention
before black and white television images,
but our hearts sagged like London Bridges.

Why has the young and beautiful fallen? And in such a tragic way?
Was this his destiny? Did he sense it?
How about hers? Is it ours, too?
How will the kids spend Christmas? What will Santa gift them?
Will she smile again? Will we?
Why did the light go out at this moment? Is the new frontier still an option?
Dare we skip rope, play hide and seek?
Will ooo eee, ooo ah ah become a dirge?
Will the nation crumble? How about our world?
Does the man in the moon cry now?
Surely heaven exists. Or is it like Camelot?

The cortege passed. We understood.
We would never be young again unless –
unless Merlin effects a magic spell or
the Round Table dubs another pure of heart
to rekindle the torch and seek the Holy Grail.

—Jo Taylor

Jo Taylor is a retired, 35-year English teacher from Georgia. Her favorite genre to teach high school students was poetry, and today she dedicates more time to writing it, her major themes focused on family, place, and faith. She says she feels compelled to write, to give testimony to the past and to her heritage. She has been published in The Ekphrastic Review, in Silver Birch Press, in Poets Online, and in Heart of Flesh Literary Journal.