STATE OF THE UNION

I live in a land called East of the River—five miles from the U.S. Capitolwhere, still, air space must be controlled.No-fly zones. So, tonight, a helicopter freezesinto shallow a star blinking over my housewhile our government is herdedinside the Senate chambers—our Commander-in-Chief and all his cabinetsave one, traditionally one, who is chargedwith exclusion, tasked with resurrectingour country should Russia, China, Iran orwhat’s left of Iraq try to bowl an atomic seven-tensplit, toppling the Capitol’s hollow pin. Tonight,it is the agriculture secretary who will save us.It should always be our agriculturesecretary. In times of crisis, a country needs—before commerce or war or law—to eat,and if we’ve allowed to be appointeda Secretary of Agriculture who can’t grow a pea,then might we not deserve oblivion?But I prefer to think of the agriculturesecretary hunkered in his undisclosed location,listening to the speech on battery-powered radio,sifting seed through his dusty palms, decidingwhat must grow first in the aftermath of fire.____Kyle G. Dargan is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently LOGORRHEA DEMENTIA (UGA 2010). His debut, THE LISTENING (UGA 2004), won the 2003 Cave Canem Prize, and his second, BOUQUET OF HUNGERS (UGA 2007), was awarded the 2008 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in poetry. Dargan’s poems and non-fiction have appeared in publications such as Denver Quarterly, Jubilat, the Newark Star-Ledger, Poet Lore, Ploughshares, TheRoot.com, and Shenandoah. While a Yusef Komunyakaa fellow at Indiana University, he served as poetry editor for Indiana Review. He is the founding editor of Post No Ills magazine and previously served as the managing editor of Callaloo.