…………………………………Have I told you that I was a Commie
…………………………………Pinko Rat on one of Nixon’s bad guy
…………………………………lists. Once so full of my own passions that
…………………………………I marched in support of democracy
…………………………………now I’m shrunk in a comfortable chair.
…………………………………I fuss with my world moving art, chairs, rugs
…………………………………in my head…in my dreams, until I find
…………………………………myself moving pictures hither and yon
…………………………………in the sunshine of a quiet day. I
…………………………………should be out marching a sign in hand for
…………………………………causes… against the War, for a carbon
…………………………………tax, saving the slough, the ocean, instead
…………………………………I fade into stuffed chair anonymity
…………………………………as the long silences grow in my head.
…………………………………
…………………………………
…………………………………
"What I Used to Be"
ReplyDeleteBut obviously not silent, not anonymous, for it's still in your brain. And your important thoughts still find their way out.
This one made me cry.
ReplyDeleteOh, Mage. I was out there marching with you, and now, more and more often, I sit in that chair. My email is filled with requests for support and I am increasingly filled with thoughts of the futility of all of it. It's time for the young people to step up. I don't understand why they aren't out there marching all the time. Your poem is wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThat chair looks so comfy. Where did you get it? I am on tony Blakely's Clinton's Rogue's Gallery list. So there. Dianne
ReplyDeleteThis is a very powerful poem that a lot of boomers can relate to! This generation doesn't seem as riled up as we were. Now you're able to shout out from your blog.
ReplyDeleteYou did what you did when you could. Now you do what you can in different ways. It's all good.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way only I marched/protested Against the RNC and G W Bush along with 1/2 million other NY'ers In 2004 when they held the RNC at MS Garden...this week I wrote a "strong" letter to the House Speaker ...and some of my friends said WHY Do you bother...and I said because SOMEBODY has to--I recalled that Hitler was Time Magazine's Man of the Year 1938--So its a knowledge of history gone by that should keep us on toes even if our bums are delicately sequestered in soft squishy easy chairs.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't too active in my youth -- now I have time and I do what I can!
The mind is willing but the body has other ideas! :)
I came because I liked your comment on Tabor's last post. Coming here I find a poem which describes to a 't'.
ReplyDeleteSerendipity or what.
Young people have not seen the changes that were made from the past protests. It is just in a history book, they have never suffered. Their children are the ones who likely will take up the cause. Although, my daughter's college had the first protests against the Iraq war, and took a lot of heat for it.
ReplyDelete