M. EARL
SMITH Reviews
To Be An Empire Is To Burn! by
Eileen R. Tabios
(Moria Books’
Locofo Chaps, Chicago, 2017)
Presented to us in the same vein
that one would view a dystopia the likes of Mad Max or, perhaps, The
Hunger Games, To Be An Empire Is To
Burn! strikes at the true chords of
discontent that cloud a world under the leadership of Donald J. Trump. Like
many of the other volumes in the Locofo line, this volume is biting, harsh, and
stark, blending three elements that always make for good political prose. Combined
with the realistic stylings of Tabios, the poems therein tell a story of the
reality we, perhaps, face under the current administration.
The poem Dialogue sums up the
volume best. In response to a comrade’s thought that each time one writes, it
may be the last, Tabios offers this quip: “’I want to think so, too. But then
2017-2020.’” The warnings of what may be to come when, in White Tombstones,
Green Lawns (a poem inspired by Tom Clancy’s 2015 novel Commander in
Chief) we are treated to the harrowing lines “’You survived to be a
general./Are you a good man?’/He forgets to answer/’Never as good as the
dead…’” Given that this review is written in the shadow of the Pentagon urging
the White House to require women to register for the draft, the thoughts of
another generation watering battle fields with blood has to weigh heavily on
the mind of artists everywhere.
The artists, it appears, are ready
to strike back. In response to belittlement over the Safety Pin Movement,
Tabios writes “They do not see the sharp(ened) point/lurking within its shining
steel clasp.” Her response, however, is more than just physical. In an historic
harbinger, Tabios warns “Ivanka Trump, meet Imee Marcos -/a future you do not
want to be yours.” By invoking the name of the daughter of the Philippine’s
most brutal dictator, Tabios hopes to prevent history from repeating itself.
At some points, however, Tabios
seems to acknowledge the inevitability of the issue, as she acknowledges in the
title poem, To Be An Empire Is To Burn! In a letter of anger, composed
to an unknown dictator (although I am sure we can all guess his name), Tabios
saves her last salvo for last, when she quips, to he that would destroy a world
with a single spark, “No one is spared / not even he who lit the match.”
*****
From works for children to the macabre, from
academic research to sports journalism, and from opinion essays to the erotic,
M. Earl Smith is a writer that seeks to stretch the boundaries of genre and
style. A native of Southeast Tennessee, M. Earl moved to Ohio at nineteen and,
with success, reinvented himself as a writer after parting ways with his wife
of eleven years. After graduating from Chatfield College (with highest honors)
in 2015, M. Earl became the first student from Chatfield to matriculate at an
Ivy League institution when he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, in
Philadelphia. The proud father of two wonderful children (Nicholas and Leah),
M. Earl studies creative writing and history at UPenn. When he’s not studying,
M. Earl splits time between Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Chattanooga, with
road trips to New York City, Wichita, Kansas, and Northampton, Massachusetts in
between.
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