My America by Mandy Macdonald

 

 


 

 

Mandy Macdonald is an Australian writer and musician living in Aberdeen who is trying to make sense of the 21st and earlier centuries. Her poems can be seen in many anthologies and journals – most recently Noon (Arachne, 2019), Multiverse (Shoreline of Infinity, 2019), The Curlew (Spring 2019) and The Poet’s Republic (Issue 7, 2019). Mandy writes in the strong hope that poetry can change the world, even just a little. When not writing, she makes music and gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My America 

 

 

 

of course I’ll cry when it’s over

what do you expect

but for now I keep returning, returning

to your dark tropics

lost half-light of a rainforest summer

your slow pensive rivers, returning

 

to the luxury of your language, its syllables

like love-gifts wrapped in yearning                   

your name on my tongue is wine laced with gold

 

O my America

if I understood you I might

colonize you with definitions, harvest

your abundance, turn your riches into capital

but I’m no conquistador

 

 

Mandy Macdonald

 

 

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