They tell me the feathery plumes I see
\nwhen little jets traverse my sky
\nare nothing at all to worry me–
\na trick of Nature\u2026 something about vectors
\nor vortexes or some such thing\u2014
\nan optical-illusion-thing
\nthat I\u2019m now too old to understand.<\/p>\n
But, I remember when I was thirteen\u2014
\na plane or jet would rumble by
\nand we\u2019d all look up from stick-ball or bike-tag
\n(in the streets we played) into a cobalt-bluish sky
\nand not a whiff or puff of white plumes feathered
\nimaginations put on hold\u2014
\nwondering at the ethereal present.<\/p>\n
That momentary, present thing
\nis now a memory distilled.
\nThe only thing concerned us then
\nwas being blown to smithereens
\nby crazy Russians who had once been friends
\n(so our fathers said) when we fought the Nazis
\nor the \u201cJaps\u201d (that\u2019s what they said!
\nBut now you can\u2019t say anything
\nunless it\u2019s stamped \u201cP.C.-Approved\u201d!)<\/p>\n
Which kind of limits thinking through
\nmuch of anything that isn\u2019t true
\nor false or in-between.
\nI know we hadn\u2019t always such
\nimbroglios and bears to bear!<\/p>\n
They tell me just to pay my dues,<\/strong> Better keep myself to myself. And they\u2019re laughing all the goddamn way \u00a0<\/strong>Gary Corseri<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>has published novels, poetry collections, dramas and articles. He has been an editor, journalist, gas station attendant, door-to-door salesman, and grape-picker in Australia. \u00a0He has taught in US prisons and public schools, and in universities in the US and Japan. \u00a0He has performed his work at the Carter Presidential Library, and his dramas have been produced on Atlanta-PBS and elsewhere. Contact:\u00a0gary_corseri@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And they\u2019re laughing all the goddamn way
\nkeep my nose clean, vote,
\nand learn by rote
\nsome simple rules to see me through:
\nTrust in God and the Pill-machine
\n(when feeling blue)
\nto keep disgusting bugs at bay;
\npay my taxes with a smile
\n(because I\u2019m good!), question not
\nsome little snot
\nwho wants to kill some enemies
\nover there before they\u2019re here,
\nstealing everything we\u2019ve got.
\n(But it seems his hand is in the slot-
\nmachine and the game is fixed,
\nand I think I\u2019m being politicked–
\nif I pause to think at all).<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019m far too small to understand
\nwhat all the big and powerful
\ntell each other when the lights are low,
\ngushing that they know, they know.<\/p>\n
\nto their bank accounts in foreign lands
\n(probably some Switzerlands!)
\nwhile telling me to be content
\nwith all the residue
\nof what was once a sky so blue
\nit hurt to ever think of losing.
\n_________________________________<\/p>\n
\nto their bank accounts in foreign lands
\n(probably some Switzerlands!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}