America the seeing-eye dog

Policy or personal

questions? In the poem Two White Wines

a child adopted from Cambodia

is a thing of beauty, and so she is

as she showed herself to be yesterday. Lovely. However

the poet implies market, i.e. economic, forces brought her to America

when, as her parents know, it was war,

the sad Vietnam War or the War with America

as I think the Vietnamese remember it.

Honor and bravery

equal courage. Reed Whittemore's poem about

a photo of Viet Cong prisoners, stoic, defiant

under an American officer's boot

expresses admiration for the enemy. Then and now

a dangerous sentiment. Your fellow citizens, denizens

of convenience stores, even your family,

may come to see you as the enemy. Once ostracized, the other,

not belonging to the loved ones, you're not long for

this world of dew.

Tits and a*s

Ken says, describes America's culture, not its poets

or jazz. What's worth fighting for?

Your land, your right to be stupid on your land.

Now there is one large land, one people

and many. The vote is a crude, monosyllabic grunt,

no way to express the subtle degrees of experience

our long lives represent. Thus,

it is good, when the family gathers, to talk,

each person speak

of what has been forgotten, forgiven and forgone.

Trading or taking

every family must be tithed or taxed.

Every man who finds his meaning in war

will be pained into wisdom and gentleness.

Who comes home

comes home to a future that bypassed the fighting, or did it?

The oil must be sold,

even Saddam or Osama cannot withhold it.

You can drink your quota of water

and still your heart can ache.

Empire or democracy

of nations? We can choose to be the reigning kings

between the last empire and the next

or we can implement a vision

of collective deliberation.

America the seeing-eye dog,

not America the junkyard dog.

Going question by question

toward predictable, transparent governance.

Example: How can a people become a nation

without resorting to violence or incurring violent reaction?