WHAT WE HEARD ABOUT THE AMERICANS
We heard there was much to admire about the Americans.
Historically.
Their cuisine is buffet, all you can
overeat.
We heard they hire whisperers, buy guides for
idiots.
Foster special needs kittens. Are visited by
aliens.
We heard the Americans are our
brethren.
That they keep ten percent of black men
imprisoned.
Are stockpiling weapons for
Armageddon.
Believe that all good dogs go to
heaven.
God bless the Americans. God bless their inalienable
freedoms.
Bless Guantanamo. Americans sure know how to have
fun.
Even their deaths are more important than our
own.
Happiness is cosmetic
dentistry.
The global dream is the American
dream.
Liberty is a statue holding a soft ice
cream.
—from Rattle #35, Summer 2011
Tribute to Canadian Poets
__________
Rachel Rose: “I write to order the burning world, and to burn the accepted order. I write to make sense out of the chaotic, the inexplicable, the unbearable, and also I write with the desire to imagine things being different than they actually are. I write to share an experience with an unknown reader, and I write as part of a great humanistic yearning to connect, metaphorically and literally. I write because I can’t play the banjo and I’m too shy to sing, but I can do this.” (link)
