Remembering Frost at Kennedy’s Inauguration
By Linda Pastan
Even the flags seemed frozen
to their poles, and the men
stamping their well-shod feet
resembled an army of overcoats.
But we were young and fueled
by hope, our ardor burned away
the cold. We were the president’s,
and briefly the president would be ours.
The old poet stumbled
over his own indelible words,
his breath a wreath around his face:
a kind of prophecy.
Copyright Credit: Linda Pastan, “Remembering Frost at Kennedy’s Inauguration” from Queen of a Rainy Country, published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Linda Pastan. Reprinted by permission of The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc.
Source: Queen of a Rainy Country (W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2006)