"Letter to Barack Obama (Solstice, 2008)" by Philip Metres (pmetres@jcu.edu)
Yes, you’ll need to stay alive
to the possibilities
of disappointing us, who believe
you’d change everything
& yesterday. To dodge bullets,
those ballots of the disaffected
& the entrenched,
their undisclosed locations
in our collective mind. To stare
whole buildings back
from rubble of foreclosure
& condemnation, stand watch
over bridges to nowhere
we’ve never known, & always
someone’s somewhere. To end stop
/loss & unlawful
combatants, extraordinary
renditions & waterboarding,
the cool abstractions that make
torture into Pet Sounds.
You’ll need to pierce the wall
of sound that power makes,
or tent yourself in your living
room & slowly go mad. Stay long
enough that we grow
used to you, scion of the globe,
become mundane as a dollar,
flawed, iconic, yet alive.
So when you’re called to kill
in our name, like a lover
who’s slept with another,
we’ll never let you live
it down, though we will
never leave. Nor forgive.
6 comments:
Gorgeous and brave. Thank you.
thanks, Cynthia. That was one of those after-midnight arrivals--kept me up on the solstice.
Love the poem. Hope you're doing well. I need to come in some time to chat; I miss your insights!
- Rina
thanks, Rina, I hope you're doing well. Law school is full on, isn't it.
Phil -
I've been sitting with this poem for the last couple of days. It's rich and yet spare at the same time. I love it. It speaks many different words, all true. We expect too much, we are hopeful and vengeful, all that. Nice work.
I like this, too, and yes, like Joe Ross, get "rich and spare" at the same time (which is ever a Quality combination).
Incidentally, the "end stop / /loss," Phil, is that ending "stop losses" of playing stock market and shorting a stock?
over bridges to nowhere
we’ve never known, & always
someone’s somewhere. To end stop
/loss & unlawful
I don't understand the last stanza and will have to read a few more times. I know that when I do get it, the last stanza, I'll like it, though. Nice poming, P.M.! Again, Yes, both rich and spare, Cool!
Steve Tills :)
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