The day they ask if you’d ratherbe burned or buried,
the president crasheshis bike into a sand dune.
Sitting in the long waiting roombetween seconds, I notice you,
made god-like by your pain,wrapping the world around your finger,
pushing the cursor forward & back,pausing for glints of detail
in the periphery of the shaky video:the spokes of the wheels drenched
in the reflection of the whitecapsslapping the shore in the distance,
the surprised look of the mancollapsed on his side, useless
as a bouquet of liliessagging next to a hospital bed,
fallen before he ever had the chanceto learn he was falling.
It comforts you, how in a timebefore all this history,
In this time of unrelenting, often unprecedented cruelty and lawlessness, I’m grateful for Nation readers like you.
So many of you have taken to the streets, organized in your neighborhood and with your union, and showed up at the ballot box to vote for progressive candidates. You’re proving that it is possible—to paraphrase the legendary Patti Smith—to redeem the work of the fools running our government.
And as we head into 2026, I promise that The Nation will fight like never before for justice, humanity, and dignity in these United States.
At a time when most news organizations are either cutting budgets or cozying up to Trump by bringing in right-wing propagandists, The Nation’s writers, editors, copy editors, fact-checkers, and illustrators confront head-on the administration’s deadly abuses of power, blatant corruption, and deconstruction of both government and civil society.
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Love and Solidarity,
John Nichols
Executive Editor, The Nation
something brutal & long gonelike a sabertooth tiger
is slowly licking its cubinto a deep, peaceful sleep.
Down the hall in the children’s ward,we watch as a little boy draws
thick lines on a toy horsewith a sharpie, inventing the zebra.
Matthew TucknerMatthew Tuckner's debut collection of poems, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is forthcoming from Four Way Books in fall 2025.