‘Poor Peter’ Enters Exile
The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks … including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.
— The Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2025, about The Scourged Back
He carries his country on his back
scars corrosive and thick hack
his skin, and the ideology he reputedly
represents dies decades after his death.
Poor Peter or Whipped Peter or Gordon
(his name melts to welts in silence),
just sits, pain slain, a present not-so-
prescient president leaves it repressed.
Dead mountains of rigid tissue last,
retract into a land’s unspoken past
The lashed returning to plow his skin
Scourged Back sowed with evil crops.
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A revised version:
The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks … including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.
— The Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2025, about The Scourged Back
He carries his country on his back
scars corrosive and thick hack
his skin, and the freedom he reputedly
represents dies decades after his death.
Poor Peter or Whipped Peter or Gordon
(his name melts to welts in silence),
just sits, pain slain, this present not-so-
prescient president leaves it repressed.
Dead mountains of rigid tissue last,
retract into a land’s unspoken past.
The lashed returning to plow his skin
Scourged Back sowed with evil crops.
all the internal and end rhyming, the consonance and assonance work to feel like lashes
Incredible.
Just Incredible.
Powerful writing about this shameful censorship and disregard.
Love your political poems, you do them so well. Nice one.
Final revision:
The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks … including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.
— The Washington Post, Sept. 15, 2025, about The Scourged Back
He carries his country on his back,
scars corrosive and thick hack
his skin, the freedom he reputedly
represents dies in decades since his death.
Poor Peter or Whipped Peter or Gordon
(his name melts to welts in silence),
just sits, pain slain, the present not-so-
prescient president leaving it repressed.
Dead mountains of rigid tissue last,
retracting a land’s unspoken past,
the lash returning to plow his skin,
Scourged Back sowed with evil crops.
Love, the final revision…enjoyed seeing how small changes changes the whole (“a present” to “this present” to “the present”) Nice fine tuning, Lee!
Man! This hits hard: “He carries his country on his back/
scars corrosive and thick hack” and “the lash returning to plow his skin,/Scourged Back sowed with evil crops.”
That first line is perfect, he carries his country on his back
Thanks, Arwen. I appreciate that.
Powerful, Lee! Great line break from the 2nd to 3rd line, and the internal rhymes are good, too!