High Horse

America, Rough-Cut Beauty

America isn’t soft light on a postcard
it’s the iron heartbeat of a nation that refuses
to bow, break, or blink.
It’s the hum of the factory at dawn,
the diesel-throated promise of a road
that stretches farther than fear.

Beauty here isn’t delicate.
It’s carved—raw, unvarnished
out of people who keep going
when the map runs out.
It’s the farmer with weather for a face,
the machinist with sparks in his eyes,
the waitress who knows the names
of everyone who’s lost something
and still showed up anyway.

America’s beauty is stubborn.
It stands in the cold wind
with its hands on its hips,
daring the storm to do its worst.
A beauty forged in contradictions:
hope and grit,
ideal and imperfection,
a story always being rewritten
by those whose voices were never
supposed to be loud enough.

And say what you want
this place, this experiment,
this unruly, relentless land
it keeps rising.
Not polished.
Not tidy.
But alive, defiant,
and unmistakably ours.

Steve Bannon is a poet, political strategist and media executive who served as an advisor to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and as Chief White House Strategist. His career includes time in the U.S. Navy, investment banking at Goldman Sachs, and a significant role in media and film, notably co-founding the conservative news site Breitbart News. Bannon is known for his role in shaping right-wing populism and for his influence on the Trump administration and beyond