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THE UNITED STATES
by Rodney Jones
If you asked what it is all about
I would say a field a green field|
in the turning rows a killdeer
and after that barbed wire
the hedge with its cardinals
a blacktop then another field
Corn one of the main things
after water and before milk
for whiskey is in it and grits
gold for chickens pearls before swine
there is a factory in every plant
if we could be properly humble
it is the greatness of the nation
along with cartoon animation
automobiles and rock ‘n roll
jazz and basketball evolved here
but not one other U.S. God
just the corn’s imperial row
on row then Sylvester Stallone
and airbrushed Elvis thank you
very much ladies and gentlemen
Presley Dylan and the Supremes
no I would say a field a vast field
at the center top-hogs and cattle
then art the cites New York
Chicago Houston Seattle man
told me last week experts can
teach starlings to talk hell
televangelists may yet witness
in terza rima each stalk of corn
contributes it has been so
hybridized with its immense
ears it no longer resembles
maize it is what we have left
to barter for oil and microchips
tons of it siloed and elevated
to float us through droughts
and wars and speculations we ask
which will most cogently represent us
Leaves of Grass or
The Simpsons
there is the idea that every
living thing is a subset of human
control and the other notion
that though we may go on
a few hundred or thousand
years the poison has spilled
no more land will be made
the search for another arable
planet may prove moot as the
search for earthly sentience
meanwhile this taco here
crunches in the great scheme of
things we persist one people one
of the potential fates of corn