Why We Did Such a Thing

by Amy Hildreth

I remember Kitty saying we shared a deep longing for
the fascists, the black men with boots on
who stole the hieroglyphics of our culture, train-wrecked
sermons into our mathematics classrooms, dictating "And hell
and hell will come."

We were all merged into Citizens, Kitty said. We were
all happy, clapping. We wore identical
haircuts. We forgot that being Italian could be any different.
We, the boot country, needed boots on to make anything
real. We needed to slap the history books back, to
open the facades up with red banners.
The dust wasn't something to be proud of anymore.

Mussolini changed that. We thought
Mussolini was a patriot, Kitty said.

The Author

Majoring with honors in English and Political Science at the University of Iowa, Amy thoroughly enjoys the academic life of reading, writing, and regurgitating. She is a hopeful MFA candidate in poetry after she completes her undergraduate education, and draws inspiration from life, lectures, and Louisiana.