HEARING
We divorced during the impeachment proceedings,
each of us calling for points of order, grudgingly ceding
ground when we had to, glad to strike the last word,
or enter into the record some conspiracy theory we’d heard,
calling it all a sham, a scam, denying witnesses, crying no
to every allegation of tit for tat, or quid pro quo,
proposing subsidiary motions to postpone to a certain time,
or indefinitely, to amend, commit, or refer to a crime,
to raise a previous question, lay on the table, cite or attest,
to object to further consideration, make a final request
to extend the limits of debate, to uphold a vow, an oath,
to second that emotion, raise a question of privilege, both
of us appealing for a recess, a suspension of the rules,
both of us out of order, both of us fools.
—from Poets Respond
December 22, 2019
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John Hodgen: “With pundits and commentators describing this impeachment vote as a signature day in our collective history, I think of that history as both macrocosm and microcosm, that for every weighty political moment for our leaders and representatives, there are millions of people going through their own history, living through their own landmark days, including those spent in civic halls testifying to oaths and vows.”
