Then
&
Now (Again)

     we had: Zen inspired beatitudes
&

Now

     we have: Wanna-be-attitudes

Then

     we had: FM rock & roll and hot rods

&

Now

     we have: AM talk radio and road rage

Then

     we had: intellectual discovery

&

Now

     we have: video poker machines

Then

     we had: free speech

&

Now

     we have: cell phones

Then

     we had: insight and dreams

&

Now

     we have: incubus and schemes

Then

     we had: Be Here Now

&

Now

     we have: What Ever...

I have plied my self and trade(s)
to this, my home country at large,
it appears to me that 'she' and I
have become incompatible.

And though I disapprove of monarchies
I can not help but wont to ponder
what might have happened
had we indeed lost the war.

What persuits might this greater Britain
have accomplished in our stead - and
to what perhaps should have been
the Queen Mother of its colonies.

And had we, the festering spawn,
become loyally subjective to his
or her majesties domination(s)
what might have ensued upon this soil?

A much higher degree of education?
A freely given national health plan?
Parliamentary procedures worth their starch,
Big Ben, and clotted cream for appetizers?

And all the while, North American indians
might have prospered into a stewardship
instead of fending off the foreign disease
preceding their inevitable massacre.

An old Klan clucker's wheelchair
is rolled into a storied courtroom
to face the past and presentense

as Emmett Till's innocent DNA returns
to determine the true mindlessness of men
while the "offical" results are still pending

upon photos of segregationist lynching
oozing from the best seller lists -
might even win a Pulitzer surprise...

nooses and necks snapped clean
along the limbs and trestles
of America's tragically murderous bigotry -

empty pop bottles and candy wrappers left behind
soon to be framed sepia postcards of the hanging
as family album souvenirs of a job well done.

Sorry? -
You say
you're "sorry!"

Dear God -
how very sorry
this is...

scarred by the tar and feathered heels
of irreparable injustice to color and creed
so graphically pictured at the execution -

these actions - these atrocities -
in fact - these acts of genocide
are most simply beyond apology.

© 2005 Hammond Guthrie