Citizen Zombie

An abecedarian poem

Another form to fill out

Beholden to the system

Circumstance in doubt

Determined to be a citizen

Enclosed a personal note

Forward as directed

Grasping at straws losing hope

 

Honest reviewer burned out

Indiscretion taken seriously

Judiciously eliminates doubt

Keeping in line with bureaucracy

Languish do his dreams

Menaced by this redundancy

 

Now I have waited too long

Oh something must be wrong

Problems that will cause rejection

Quietly I let slip hopes and passion

 

Reams of paper mount the desk

Stifled by endless protocols

Today no different than the rest

Unseen in these  kiosk walls

 

Verify the signature is it blue?

Waiting for yet another review

Xerox a fourth copy for file

 

You are approved you are denied

Zombie life exemplified

 

 

Author's Note

Applying for citizenship is about as arduous as processing the paperwork.

Reviews

[W.k.kortas]

Normally, I find acrostics and the like about as appealing as a rectal exam--the normal process seems to put the required first-letters in order and then to try to ram a poem into the format. This piece is an exception to that norm; it has a thematic string that carries all the way through the poem from beginning to end, and there is very little that seems forced or unnatural. Very solidly done.

[R.R.Louderback]

Abecedarian poems are a rarity these days. It is a form I don't often see at any rate. This was well executed. I'm not sure I understand the phrase "Languish do his dreams"; I'm assuming it means "His dreams do languish" but it seems a difficult construction, perhaps the only such in the poem.

I ran the citizenship gauntlet in the long ago and remember its nightmarish labyrinthine qualities with all too much detail. A friend of mine attained his citizenship this week and I am going to print a copy of this for him.

I think you achieved an unusual amount of clarity in the execution of this form. Well done!