poem
Volume 34, Number 2

States of America

If you look at the title of the original 
Declaration of Independence you’ll 
note that united was written in small 
letters and uncapitalized while States 
of America
 is in big letters, dwarfing 
the united. United looks more like a 
common adjective than part of a proper 
noun, like a remora on a ray, dressing 
on a salad, a word they could’ve cut if 
word count had been a pressing issue. 
It makes you wonder if the founding 
fathers had intended the name of this 
country to be States of America. They 
weren’t all that particular about the 
united aspect. That explains a lot. 


—Ian Willey