She Who Would Be President

"Love becomes our legacy"

Source: Instagram

When she’s old enough to run, twelve years from now, she could become the youngest person elected U.S. president.

She could be the first U.S. president with a twin.

Depending on what happens in the next weeks and months, she could be the first or second Black woman to sign bills at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

She would be the umpteenth president to graduate from Harvard, but only the second one born in California and the first born in Los Angeles.

She would not be the first president raised by a single mother

or inspired by Maya Angelou and Abraham Lincoln,

but she would be the first to have read a poem

at a presidential inaugural.

To see her, I suspect my generation

(X)

will make few presidents.

The kids who grew up recycling their trash,

lit up by injustice against Harry Potter,

want a crack

at ending war, cleaning coral, making every child free

to walk to school in safety.

These young have been running for president since they could tie their shoes.

Amanda in 2036.

Already, her elegant hands put wings to her words.

She practices shaping the clay country.

She writes our new anthem,

our waves of grain not just amber

but umber, bone, and fawn.

I am ready to vote for a

poet-president.

.

My neighbors are worried

that immigrants will overrun their liberties

and trans (wo)men will infest the girls’ locker rooms.

Watch how a poet swaps our clichés

for a language that dignifies

every

last

one of us.

Is that so much to be feared, friends?

.

Amanda Gorman would like to be president.

What if this is not political,

but only hopeful.

I want 2024

to give U.S. a chance

at a poet-president

when she is old enough.

For now,

she apprentices for her great work

with poems.

About Amanda Gorman and the 2021 Inaugural Poem (Library of Congress)

Amanda Gorman online (personal website)

When were you enchanted by a poem, a story, or a book?

Post your answer and tag me (@TaraPenry) anywhere in the post by this Friday, July 26th, to have your story included in the Enchanted by a Book compilation next week.

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