CARRYING AMERICA
The America we carry never shot her children. The America we carry loves her body’s land. The America we carry marches shoulder to versicolor shoulder, from sea to shining sequins.
The America we carry raises the barn together. The America we carry raises the bar together. The America we carry cannot be wrested from us.
We haul her, we lug her, we hoist her, we bear her like a temple chalice and when she seems to be torn from our arms we transmit her like DNA.
America has carried us, and now we carry her in our inviolable hearts, in our unstoppable actions, in our flowing humanity.
America, we carry you, Sweet pit of the fruits we are. We cleanse the earth, and feed it. Soil that was fetid is threaded with living connections now. America, we plant you properly, we tend you properly, at last.
Irene O’Garden has won or been nominated for prizes in nearly every writing category from stage to e-screen, hardcovers, and literary magazines and anthologies. Irene’s critically acclaimed play, Women on Fire, starring Judith Ivey, played sold-out houses Off-Broadway. Her play, Little Heart, about artist Corita Kent, premiered at Jewel Theatre in Santa Cruz in 2023, which led to the new play commission she recently completed, Alice in Widowland. Irene has published several books, including two memoirs Fat Girl, (Harper San Francisco) and Risking the Rapids (Mango) a book of essays, Glad to Be Human (Mango) and Fulcrum, (Nirala Press) her first poetry collection.