A Poem that Had Hoped to Remain Decidedly Metaphorical but Couldn’t Help Its Political Veer

 Jim LaVilla-Havelin

March 2, 2025

On the thirtieth anniversary of my coming to live

in Texas, I am contemplating what

secession would mean -

The trees outside my window, the birds I just filled the feeder for,

the cholla, the agave and the pencil cactus  - for all their hither 

          and yon growth - could give a damn.

In fact, the mesquites just bend in the wind and even 

          when they break, fall - they find a way to

           dig back into this hardscrabble earth

           and live.

They do not break away.

No, this is not 

the breakaway republic, not now at least -

nestled gently in the big wings

             of the new amerikkan 

             tyranny.

I’m sending all my friends the link to 

Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience”

Secession is a personal stance, and it doesn’t mean

disengagement.

Jim LaVilla-Havelin is the author of six books of poetry. His most recent, Tales from the Breakaway Republic, a chapbook, was published by Moonstone Press, Philadelphia, in May 2022. LaVilla-Havelin is the Coordinator for National Poetry Month in San Antonio.