Thursday, November 28, 2024

Thanks, With An Eye To The Near Term, a poem


Thank you who read these words, 

friends, men, women, children, 

gays, trans, minorities, everybody 


who shepherded this poet 

into the wilderness and out 

again, ensconced and cradled 


in hands, on laps, in hearts. 

in the passenger seat while 

I drove from border town


to watering hole, 

to the city center

to sip cappuccinos, 


nibble cake and sit back 

and smile together

at the surreal stories clowns 


as politicians unfurled 

to bamboozle us 

as we stared catatonic 


at the latest declaration 

of war against our neighbor 

and friend, and war against 


every value our mother 

taught us to believe, 

for the greater good 


and the more fitting society, 

handed over on a tray 

to the Butcher of Queens, 


the Bogey Man of the Tower,

the Quack who says he will stop 

this and that war in the first hour 


on his first day 

(...or the day after..,or never).



Indran Amirthanayagam c) November 27, 2024


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