Note: The 21-gun salute is reserved for the President of the United States, ex-presidents, a president-elect, the sovereign or chief of state of a foreign country, and members of a reigning royal family.
TWENTY-ONE
for presidents
and heads of state,
for kings and queens,
for the great and powerful
who wield the
heel-grinding boot,
we hold in reserve
the 21-gun salute, while
at the paupers’ grave,
for the indigent
John Doe, anonymous
immigrant drowned in the cold
Rio Grande, for the numberless
victims at the hand
of the world’s tyrants,
the final shovelful of dirt
is patted down in silence.