The Poet Laureate’s Solstice

The summer solstice arrived at 12:24 am EDT (4:24 GMT). On this longest day of the year, here are a few words to ponder by Tracy K. Smith, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and just-announced next poet laureate of the U.S.

Solstice
They're gassing geese outside of JFK.
 Tehran will likely fill up soon with blood
 The Times is getting smaller day by day.
We've learned to back away from all we say
 And, more or less, agree with what we should.
 Whole flocks are being gassed near JFK.
So much of what we're asked is to obey—
 A reflex we'd abandon if we could.
 The Times reported 19 dead today.
They're going to make the opposition pay.
 (If you're sympathetic, knock on wood.)
 The geese were terrorizing JFK.
Remember how they taught you once to pray?
 Eyes closed, on your knees, to any god?
 Sometimes, small minds seem to take the day.
Election fraud. A migratory plague.
 Less and less surprises us as odd.
 We dislike what they did at JFK.
 Our time is brief. We dwindle by the day.
-Tracy K. Smith

And here’s an interesting–and short–New Yorker analysis of the poem: