SONNET FOR THE U. S. CAPITOL DOME
Driving down North Cap some afternoons
that vista looks so fake, a cardboard dome
pasted on a summer album’s page.
When Congress is in session, winter nights
they light the topknot, called the lantern—bright
and merry as a party. Dante wrote:
“Cut off from hope, we go on in desire.”
Picabia once said, “The head is round
so thoughts can change direction.” Every Fall,
a plague of crows like freshmen senators
ascends the Hill in dancing shrouds. They roost
among a palisade of narrow spikes
placed evenly amid the cast iron ribs,
and oil their squeaky wings for a new season.
Kim Roberts is author of five books of poems, including The Scientific Method, forthcoming from WordTech Editions in February 2017, and Fortune’s Favor: Scott in Antarctica (Poetry Mutual Press, 2015). She is currently the Artist at Pine Needles Fellow, sponsored by the Science Museum of Minnesota.http://www.kimroberts.org.
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