Off the Wall

From our 19th century historian Eudora Dickinson:

In his now-classic poem “His Heart has narrow Banks,” Emmett Lee Dickinson wrote about Drittereich Drümpf, a distant relative of Donald Trump’s.  Of course, today the words seem to ring true about Donald Trump as well.
 
At the time the poem was written, Drittereich Drümpf was running for governor of Ohio, and one of his campaign promises was to build a wall around Cleveland.  Cleveland was the first city in the world to be fully lit by electricity, and Drümpf saw this as the devil’s work.

Pictured at the right: Drittereich Drümpf

When Drümpf announced his candidacy for governor of Ohio, he railed against the citizens of Cleveland.  “If they have lights on at night, they will send out their people, and they won’t be sending out their best. They'll be sending out people who have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems to us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some people of Cleveland, I assume, are good people, but we’ve got to build a wall around them, and it’s going to be a great wall.”
 
Drümpf added, "This will be a wall with a big, very beautiful door because we want the good people of Cleveland -- and I assume that there are at least a few good people -- to be able to enter into our state."
 
Fortunately, the good people of Ohio rejected Drittereich Drümpf.  He was not elected and the wall was never built. However, some people in Ohio still want to build the wall around Cleveland due to the poor performance of the Cleveland Browns.
 
Below on the left:  Emmett Lee Dickinson’s poem “His Heart has narrow Banks.”  Below on the right:  Emily Dickinson’s poem “The Heart has narrow Banks,” a work inspired by Emmett Lee Dickinson’s poem.
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By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
His Heart has narrow Banks
It measures like a Pea
This mighty – unrelenting Ass
Of Red Monotony
 
This Wind Bag is hell bent
On making us return
To an antiquated Era
Where Forward Movement’s spurned
 
His Call is “Build a Wall”
An unattempted feat
And if the work’s undone he’ll just
Distract us – with a tweet.

By Emily Dickinson:
 
The Heart has narrow Banks
It measures like the Sea
In mighty – unremitting Bass
And Blue Monotony

Till Hurricane bisect
And as itself discerns
Its insufficient Area
The Heart convulsive learns

That Calm is but a Wall
Of unattempted Gauze
An instant's Push demolishes
A Questioning – dissolves.