|
CONTINUOUS TRIBUTE
"This week America lost a cherished
son and the world lost a great leader. A man of moral character and great
humility, his leadership made the world a better place. Ronald Wilson
Reagan epitomized what American stand for—freedom,
democracy, and national pride."
—George
W. Bush, June 6, 2004
1. Three Card Monty President
Watch his hands
as his words fill us
with Hollywood hope
and the doubt that maybe
we have been wrong
all these years,
our skepticism was nothing more
than a liberal trick.
2. Media America
I want to believe this country is not
a teenage girl who needs to be told
she is pretty in order to feel alive.
I want to believe that across the country
Americans are turning off their TV's and saying,
Damn lies.
That a girl is raising her hand and asking,
Hussein is not Osama, right?
That she is asking, Bush is not Reagan, right?
That someone, right now, is pulling up
to a gas station and saying, This is bullshit.
I'm buying a bike.
That somewhere, a son is asking
his father, Was Ronald Reagan like Lady Di?
And that the father answers, No.
Reagan was funny, but not good.
Diana was good, but not a saint.
They both represent something
that is not us.
3. The Early Eighties
I remember when ketchup
was declared a school lunch vegetable.
I remember when the gun being built
in outer space was named after
my favorite film.
I remember feeling my Russian blood
stand up from its assimilated years
and yelling, Am I no longer good?
I remember marching down Fifth Avenue
and shouting, We don't want a nuclear war—
I remember throwing up at night
because I was scared of the day after
tomorrow.
As a child, I became wary of jokers
and smilers and men of conviction.
I became wary of men who changed
their mind, would not listen,
and called their questioners dirty names—
There he goes again.
There he goes again
making a mockery of us all.
SHOT
My father said the reason
Ronald Reagan did not die
when he was shot
was because he was not
a great man
and only great men
get assassinated.
THE FUNERAL
WEEK
Death renders America silent
among the dervish trees and
strip malls, among the concrete
and bablyon, among the frivolous
stores and tool sheds,
we are stunned.
The dead go on tour, open for bands,
close down schools, travel first class,
take center stage in a room of guards
and velvet ropes, a boy scout salutes
that which he has not known.
I want to speak for those
who are not to speak.
Death does not make you
an angel or a hero—
Death does not even
make you good.
I choose my own memories
among the sound of hammers and nails.
The mountain is a mountain.
When the wind blows
the tree leaves move
and sound like rain.
When Reagan died
I only remembered
that I grew up scared.
|