“Cutting it Down” by David Ruekberg (Poetry ’04)
Poetry alum David Ruekberg’s poem, “Cutting it Down,” was featured in Crayfish.
Read an excerpt below.
Cutting it Down
My neighbor is having tree work done and the grinding
is not conducive to my meditation. There are evil-doers
in Congress that I want to grind up like that, but reading
Hannah Arendt last night I recalled it’s not just the leaders
but also my neighbors that have done terrible things.
My neighbor borders her yard with American flags
every holiday she can, and before the last election
she hung a black stars-and-stripes from her porch.
The way I read it was, “Evil lives here,” but the flag
commerce site shows that it honors fallen police.
Read the rest of the poem: Cutting it Down.
