Jeff McCallum

I have a tendency to rave, but only about politics. Unfortunately, this includes such a range of things from civil rights to health care to torture that I need to check myself frequently. I am in the debt of Mark Doty and R K for driving this point home at Bread Loaf in the summer of 2006.

                                                                         A Lot of Planning

G oes into starting a war

E ngaging the nation in controversy

O rganizing votes and voters

R eassuring the sheep repeating the lies

G athering the reins

E nriching the rich and the powerful

W ho do you think

B esides the obvious choices

U ltimately plans and profits from death and low taxes

S ocial and ecological responsibilities abandonment

H uman beings floating in the wreckage

T ortured

H idden in cages

E ssentially disappeared

M cCarthyism with a different color red

I t’s a little more subtle

L isting our fears one by one

I nsinuating that sexual or religious preference affects our quality of life

T ax breaks equating to one tank of gas

A re crafted to create the illusion that you too

R eap the windfalls of war

Y ou too are a member of the party of the privileged

I nstead of protesting the injustice of poverty

N oticing the color of the victims changing policy

D emonstrating that we care

U ltimately we are lulled to sleep

S atisfied that we are or someone else is doing their best

T ackling the tough problems

R acism

I nadequate health care

A national debt that will last for generations

L ies at the voting booth

C omplicit in the perpetration of the fraud

O stensibly believing we are blameless

M oreover we have nothing to hide nothing to fear

P atriot Act and NSA created for that stranger next door

L et fascism reign

E ven if it means handcuffing the Bill of Rights leaving our past and future

X eric to the point tearless remembering

Ronnie’s Poem

There are stories to be told

and ways to tell them which light the soul

she told me bluntly

in her kind and gentle manner

Paint the people

paint the picture

spin it round until we see bold as the nose on our face

quiet as a dead man breathing

She buried her husband in his FEMA shirt

pre 911

After Katrnia

she said

in her matter of fact way

I felt so guilty about that

I mean

having FEMA no longer something to be proud of

but on reflection

the shirt has probably disintegrated by now

my husband too

has probably disintegrated by now

and FEMA certainly has

That’s what I mean

tell a story

Like Jonathan Schulze

twenty five

USMC

A delayed casualty of the Iraq war

according to his Vietnam Veteran father

Two purple hearts

and a six month old daughter

Number 26 on the list

the waiting list for admission to the VA Hospital

He committed suicide at his home in New Prague, Minnesota

while we debate funding for a surge

That’s what I mean

tell a story

Who’s Only Along for the Ride

Jessie Jackson at Keith Ellison Pre- Rally

It’s a short drive really

a couple of miles and a universe

from the law school lecture hall

to the political rally

in the neighborhood where the police

serve free lemonade on the street corners

to counter the bad press

from the latest casual killing

How many of the attendees needed directions I wondered

as they boarded their Toyotas and Hondas

heading off in seemingly the wrong direction

I Wonder

Several CEOs
and certain unnamed others
of a certain HMO
gleaned perhaps a billion dollars in bonuses
in the last ten or so years
and someone told my mother a certain facility
was out of network
my friend’s second cousin on her father’s side
that a certain procedure was not covered
and certain politicians say universal health care is unobtainable
Is that irony
Is this a poem