Cena Trimalchionis by Benjamin Goluboff

The long withdrawing roar
can no longer be heard
above the small-arms fire
from the clubs
and schools
and churches.
Forests burn.
Seeds are indentured
to multinational corporations.

Of course we will be true
to one another,
but what good is truth
as Trimalchio prepares his banquet,
promises to make us great again?

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About the author:

Benjamin Goluboff teaches English at Lake Forest College. Aside from a modest list of scholarly publications, he has placed imaginative work — poetry, fiction, and essays — in numerous small-press journals, most recently Chicago Literati, Bird’s Thumb, and War Literature and the Arts. Some of his work can be read at www.lakeforest.edu/academics/faculty/goluboff/