Patricia Spears Jones: The Devil’s Wife looks at America to understand the necessity of wordsmiths

We are targets for the Devils work—fertile women, queer men,
Black and brown people, the usual suspects and yet, he’s uneasy.
He sees warrior poets, potent storytellers, librarians loudly
calling out titles of censored books. He’s brewing more mess
against transpeople and lifting those willing to join his army
of thieves, rapists, crypto conjurers and cosmeticized beauty queens
who wave flags and gag on heaps of fear and loathing.
Loathing and fear.
They build arsenals in their three car garages
and cry mightily when someone claims wolves are better creatures.
Loathing and fear.
At the border of gated communities, in the state houses where elected
Representatives are removed by the devil’s disciples.
Yes, the Devil is making quite a mess of America,
and here I am swabbing yet another wound and offering up unanswered prayers.
Our names are on fire Our names are on fire
Read words bright enough to blanch the colors of fear and loathing
Purging the wind’s tonal rhetoric that screams against our lives. America
Should be dead—dead to justice, to liberty, to equality. Should be dead.
That rhetoric that shapes daily the manners of flag pinned insurrectionists
The Devil keeps brewing toxins that troll our lives. The Devil is so damn busy
He misses the poisons’ antidotes—warrior poets, powerful storytellers, librarians
Refusing intoxication. Their eyes open to America’s great and terrible schemes
They claim all of America’s triumphs and sorrows.
They hear the cracked Liberty Bell’s whispering chime and hold dear the
Beauty and promise in this amazing land. Firecrackers explode. Banners unfurled.
Crazy dancing on highways stopping traffic because lives matter. Lives matter.
You know, American is a land of choices—
Choose whether our country flourishes and evolves
or whether that sad army that stormed the Capitol can lead us on.
These choices seem oh so clear but are made so hazy.
Thus, tributes must be made
For those warrior poets, potent storytellers and loud librarians.
This nation would be the home of the dead in the head if not for them.

Copyright 2025 Patricia Spears Jones

Patricia Spears Jones’s collections of poetry include The Beloved Community; A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon, 2023). She served as New York State Poet (2023-2025).