Rhina P. Espaillat

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A Request to an Alien Guest

(to the tune of “God Bless America”)

Please take our President,
soon—like today!
Won’t you grab him,
and nab him
to your place
out in space
far away,

Past the moonscapes,
and the sunspots,
and the planets,
and their moons?

Please take our President,
and all his goons,
please take our President,
and all his goons!

Rhina P. Espaillat has published 11 full-length books and three chapbooks, comprising poetry, essays and short stories, in both English and her native Spanish, and translations from and into Spanish. Her work appears in numerous journals, over 70 anthologies, and dozens of websites, and has earned national and international awards, including the T. S. Eliot Prize in Poetry; the Richard Wilbur Award; the Howard Nemerov Prize; the May Sarton Award; the Robert Frost “Tree at My Window” Prize for translation; several honors from the New England Poetry Club, the Poetry Society of America, and the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Salem State College. Espaillat’s most recent publications are three poetry collection in English titled And After AllPlaying at Stillness, and Her Place in These Designs. She has also published a book of Spanish translations titled Oscura fruta/Dark Berries: Forty-two Poems by Richard Wilbur, and a book of Spanish translations titled Algo hay que no es amigo de los muros/Something There Is that Doesn’t Love a Wall: Forty Poems by Robert Frost, both available from Amazon.com. She is a frequently invited reader, speaker, and workshop leader, and is active with the Powow River Poets, a notable group she co-founded in 1992.