Ode to American Young

Schools teach not what strikers fought for,
heathen Central America, carnage galore,
Marquis de Tracy, Mohawk crops no more,
Quakers hustled slaves out the plantation door,
“tanks in land of water buffalo,” flamethrower,  ((From the late Eugene McCarthy’s poem, “Vietnam Message” published in his 1967 book Other Things and the Aardvark))
Nader distrusted Corvair, safety belts we wore,
Kilroy there in Corrigidor, W. Bush over Gore,
Mr. Over-Qualified at Wal Mart door,
Bradley Manning’s truth, taught to ignore
instead of synagogue, King Bibi’s gone to war,
MLK, a day-off, torture, cheap labor,
remember Carlin? He said “Club’s rotten to core,”
Habitat for Humanity, come get a two by four,
can I see the eyes of a white Boer, Biko’s on floor,
it’s actually you and I they deplore,
and so young man …, ‘ya want to even the score
see the future, shed the Censor, get free from Reaper?
Always look for the hairy paw, rocking the Terror.

This article was posted on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.