Twenty-Three to Twenty-One #1 by Michael Ceraolo

This is the first poem fromTwenty-Three to Twenty-One, excerpts from each of the letters that one Julia Sand wrote to Chester Arthur, along with Arthur's imagined responses.

from Twenty-Three to Twenty-One

             #1

"[1881 Aug 27]

To the Hon Chester A.Arthur,

The hours of Garfields life are numbered---

before this meets your eye

you may be President

The people are bowed in grief;

but---

          do you realize it?---

not so much because he is dying,

as because you are his successor"

"the thought rose in a thousand minds

that you might be the instigator of the foul act

Is that not a humiliation

which cuts deeper than any bullet can pierce?"

"But making a man President can change him!"

"Great emergencies awaken generous traits

which have lain dormant half a life

If there is a spark of nobility in you,

now is the occasion to let it shine

Faith in your better nature

forces me to write to you"

"You are free---

                        free

to be as able & as honorable as

any man who ever filled the presidential chair"

"Rise to the emergency"

                  "Yours Respectfully,

                          Julia I. Sand

46 E. 74th st. New York"

Arthur:

After my nomination a year ago June

The Nation magazine said this about it:

"It is true General Garfield, if elected,

may die during his term of office,

but this is too unlikely a contingency

to be worth making extraordinary provision for"

A backhanded compliment if ever there was such,

and all that could be expected of

the do-gooders championing reform

And yet

here is a letter from someone,

someone I don't know, who believes

no extraordinary provision need be made

I am touched by her faith in me,

                                               but,

though I am not religious as was my father,

"I pray to God that the President will recover"

"God knows I do not want the place 

I was never elected to"

Bio:  "Michael Ceraolo is a retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has had one full-length book (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press) and a few chapbooks published (among the chapbooks is Cleveland Haiku, from Green Panda Press). He has a second full-length book, Euclid Creek Book Two, forthcoming from unbound content press, and is continually working on new and existing poetry projects.