Ballad of the First 100 Days

“The iceberg cometh,” quipped the clear-eyed first mate.
The comed-over captain wiped his brow.
“It seems that we’re just a little too late,”
he sighed, as he gazed from the prow.

Then came the uprising. “Mutiny!” was the call.
An old man took the captain’s wheel.
“We’ll go two knots slower, with galoshes for all!”
He promised a much better deal.

The new captain slowed half a knot, galoshes were few,
and the iceberg loomed with impatience.
But everyone had to admit, while saying adieu,
“He’s exceeded our expectations.”

Roger Stoll lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and has published articles, book reviews and political poetry in Black Agenda Report, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Internationalist 360, Jewschool, Marxism-Leninism Today, MintPress News, MRonline, New Verse News, Orinoco Tribune, Popular Resistance, Resumen Latinoamericano, San Francisco Examiner, and ZNet. Read other articles by Roger.