OntheWilderSide

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEngnIsECMY]

This poem was read as the introduction to a talk on “A Green Party View of Obama’s First 100 Days” given at the May 2009 Babylon Green Party gathering. A 30 minute version of the talk can be found at http://www.onthewilderside.com/2009/… The Babylon Green Party gathers the first Wednesday of every month at 7pm at Pisces Cafe, Babylon. More information can be found at http://www.babylongreens.org

100 days

a close shave

I.

years ago we were speeding across
a long, flat desert road
all I can see in the horizon
is a stop sign
i had not picked this driver

i wanted a man
of unreasonable integrity
clear as air and water
safe at any speed

instead the driver
appeared incompetent
gored as a large-eared chimp
yet he was the decider

from the backseat
a porter ripped a page
from Pygmalion
scribbled a note across it
handed it to the driver

I shouted to the porter
“Yoo?”
“Justice”
he mumbled back

the driver glanced at the note
stuffs it deep inside his privilege
“We do not torture.”
he shouted
and guns it
through the stop sign

II.

I am again speeding across
the same long, flat desert road
all I can still see in the horizon
is still the same stop sign
the driver has changed

I wanted a woman
of unsinkable dignity
a beacon in a blackout
no fear of the truth

it is not the driver i chose
he appears competent
gesticulating with his left
while his right holds the wheel

from the back seat a Holder murmurs
“executive authority”
“enemy combatant”
‘state secrets”
“sovereign immunity”
“extraordinary rendition”
“Bagram”
“warrantless wiretapping”
“indefinite detention”
“habeas corpus”
“look forward”
“off the table”

I shout “Justice!”
silence

the driver announces
“it is no longer our policy
to torture”
flicks the left turn signal
and guns it
through the stop sign

Filed under: 3rd party, cynthia mckinney, grassroots democracy, Green Party, poetry, president, Ralph Nader, reform, social & economic justice, video