i dreamt of a presidential state of the union where the union suddenly mattered in the aftermath of catastrophic war and dismal economic projections and white old men with yellowed teeth stood and applauded and sat back down and stood and applauded again and again until the dreaming stopped and black women stooped over onto their hands and knees to let the wives of these men with their wide hips and taut faces step over them into gnarled waiting hands and in the dark i reach over to her because i am afraid of the world i have found myself in where the state of my own union with her is barely keeping me together