Colleen Redman
51 years old
Floyd, VA
Colleen writes commentary, many of which have appeared in the Roanoke Times. She also co-edits a local newsletter.
Hard Labor
Poetry is sustainable
as opposed to prose
which is burning me out
confining me with rules
and punctuation
Poetry renews me
it breathes like silk
as opposed to prose
which is stiff
With a masonry of the mind
I write about Iraq
each carefully placed word
has a life depending on it
Is a stone I strain to lift
for a great wall of resistance
we all need to do
hard labor to stop a war
If prose is the heavy truth
then poetry is the hope
like drinking cool water
after eating all day
And I am stuffed with facts
overweight with the nightly news
poetry is the bell
that saves me from being
all-consumed
I make myself read a poem
like a mother says “eat your vegetables”
it reminds me with its ringing
that the sky is still blue
If prose is the glaring sun
then poetry is the moon
a light on dark injustice
a watchful open eye
Dream for President Bush
Dream for President Bush
I want President Bush to have a dream
like the one that Ebenezer Scrooge had
I want him to be visited by the ghosts of Iraqi children
who cry out, “But mankind was your business”
I want all the Tiny Tims of the world
to get their 401k money back
from the white collar criminals who stole it
I want them to not go to war
for oil, good ratings, or weapon sale quotas
because this white collar mafia is in power
I wish President Bush would have an affair
I wish he’d take off his black pointed cowboy boots
and look at the moon more often
And then I wish he’d wake up
and be inflicted with what Jim Carey had
in the movie “Liar Liar”
I wish all the billboards across the country read:
“Give back the votes your brother stole”
and the poets would shout from every street corner,
“The emperor wears no clothes”
I want his mouth washed out with soap
every time he says “weapons of mass destruction”
and for him to wear a Darth Vadar helmet
if he ever says “the axis of evil” again
I hope President Bush looks out his White House window
when we descend on Washington marching for peace
like hordes of starlings who know their way home
because it is in their nature
I want President Bush to have a dream
like the one that Martin Luther King had
I want him to be visited by the ghosts of King,
John Lennon, Paul Wellstone, and the Kennedys
I want the New York Times to cover the story
when his mother scolds him for being a bully
I hope he gets some Gi Joes for Christmas
and starts to play with real toys
and not with real people
I think President Bush should go back to school
and look up some words in the dictionary
or study history – like the Roman Empire
I’d like him to write on the blackboard 100 times,
“I will not promote propaganda – or the far right agenda”
“I will not join gangs”
I want President Bush to be haunted
by the ghosts of our Founding Fathers
until he learns this lesson:
that killing civilians is a terrorist act
and pre-emptive strike is invasion
I want him to break out in song
at his next Address to the Nation
singing “Give Peace a Chance” is all we are saying
and “We Shall Overcome”
I want President Bush to have an epiphany
or else I want him gone
I want Americans to say “yes” when the polls ask,
“Should regime change begin at home?”
And I want him to stop shouting “Fire!” in the theatre
when he is the one with the matches
I want him to care about children
more than slogans and re-elections
If President Bush doesn’t have a real dream soon
he should step aside for those who do
He should impeach himself
and ask for forgiveness
for imposing his nightmare on the world
drop by drop
When faucets leak
where does the water go?
Does it drip down
into an underground purgatory?
Collect into selfish pools
that no one can drink from?
Like a ticking clock
our lives spill out
drop by drop
children die
from drinking dirty water
while Americans
sprinkle their lawns
kill dandelions
and sing in the shower
as U.S. bombs rain down
on faraway cities
and corporations sell water
to women and children
the way Nestles sells baby formula
The constant sound of drip
is like a bell being struck
the same one that John Donne heard
when he asked, “Who does it toll for?”
I want to know this:
When my life spills out
whose will be filled?
And what can I do with the tears
after I cry for those children?
Agression on Iraq
Aggression on Iraq 9/21/02
Can I sue the President for punitive damages
for keeping me awake at night?
Can I hold him accountable for the pit in my stomach
from the aggression he proposes in the name of my country?
Communist, terrorist, rogue state, witch
Always a hunt for the enemy
Always in God’s name
or to protect our freedom
Our freedom to shop without disruption
to drive to the mall in a mini van to do it
Is a far cry from what
our founding fathers intended
Is an assault
on all human beings
Colleen Redman
Sign of the Times/2004
Put a “Do Not Disturb” sign
over the forest
Hang an “Out of Order” sign
on the White House door
Proceed with caution
Yield to your conscience
Handle the whole world
with care
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