_:n1f580162ffc2463d9f15af448b1b66a5xb0
<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"[audioplayer file=\"https://www.rattle.com/audio/CusterTrump.mp3\"]\r\n<p class=\"author\"><em>Rachel Custer</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"title\"><strong>HOW I AM LIKE DONALD TRUMP</strong></p>\r\n<p class=\"epil\"><em>for D.T. and other lonely people</em></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">Yesterday I said the thing </div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">I was trying to say </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">perfectly to myself. I am something</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">astounding, I am like the Grand</div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">Canyon, I said, by which I meant</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">I sometimes feel hedged in</div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">by those who would sweat in hot cars for days</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">just to stand and look at me. And people think</div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">I am saying I am a spectacle, a wonder</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">surrounded by nothing </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">as huge as me, and people think I am</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">claiming majesty. People travel for days </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">to look at the most important canyon, which is to say </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">the biggest empty space. Sometimes</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">I might as well kick pea gravel over the side </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">rather than try to explain who I am</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">and wait until I hear it hit the ground. </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">What I am trying to say </div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">in small, hard words that always fall away</div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">from what I mean,</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">is I am not the canyon, the immense</div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">perfection of its depth, I am more</div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">the missing earth dispersed, </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">trying to feel whole, to believe </div>\r\n<div class=\"line\">that God makes sometimes </div></p>\r\n\r\n<p><div class=\"line\">by taking away.</div></p>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">—<em>from</em> <a href=\"https://www.rattle.com/respond/\">Poets Respond</a>\r\nOctober 18, 2016</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">__________</p>\r\n\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Rachel Custer</strong>: \"Pretty much every news story right now is about Donald Trump. Except that they're all negative, and this poem is not. Poetry can do so much, and one thing my partner and I were just talking about is the fact that these candidates are human beings, both of them. I try to imagine how it would feel to only hear myself derided and hated all day long.\"</p>\r\n</blockquote>"
<https://www.rattle.com/how-i-am-like-donald-trump-by-rachel-custer/>