Monday, December 10, 2007

A dream the president should have

My online friend Larry left me a copy of a poem by Colleen Redman that I thought was worth sharing. (Thanks, Larry!) I tracked down the author's blog, Loose Leaf Notes, and found the poem. It's called a Dream for President Bush. Redman wrote the poem prior to the invasion of Iraq and its been passed around at peace marches in Washington.
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 Vader 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

Click over to read the rest of it and leave her a comment.


2 comments:

Larry said...

Poems do not always have to rhyme to have a significant meaning, and this poem certainly is fitting for today.

Kathy said...

Larry, you're absolutely right. One of my favorite free verse poets is T.S. Elliott. (Hmm...his name might be spelled with one "T" instead of two.) Check out "The Hollow Men" if you get a chance.

The rhyming and cadence aren't as important to me as the message, and Redman's message was thought provoking.