Manifest Destiny

In a dream, I watched the nation die. I was
Compelled to laugh. Was what I saw a comedy?
A roaring mob of unwashed clods installed
A moron in the White House. Soon, a land
Which had been broke for decades became
Broker still. The air grew thick with heat
And toxic gases. Children went to war
To fight for nothing, really, as their parents'
Yards went unattended. Nannies disappeared.
A wall was built, which wasn't half so good
At keeping out the ones who might have saved
Us as the moron's laws and justices (was that
A joke? A rapist reached the highest court)
Conspired to keep our ruined country white,
And old, and dying. At some point,
The Chinese came, but we'd have fallen,
Anyway, too proud, too dumb to see our
Weaknesses. A land of low-life merchants,
Jingoes, racists, losers of all stripes, could
Surf the wave of human progress only for
A little while. Later, when the tide went out,
They found us, stinking, on our boards.
We proved to be the trash that all the others
Sifted from the sea, the casts of slapstick
Comedies, and I just had to laugh.



Poetry by Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 108 times
Written on 2019-11-14 at 01:52

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