Julia Alvarez
pearlmutt
Posts: 392
The White House Has Disinvited the Poets
by Julia Alvarez
The White House has disinvited the poets
to a cultural tea in honor of poetry
after the Secret Service got wind of a plot
to fill Mrs. Bush's ears with antiwar verse.
Were afraid the poets might persuade
a sensitive girl who always loved to read
a librarian who stocked the shelves with Poe
and Dickenson? Or was she herself afraid
to be swayed by the cooing doves, and live at odds
with the screaming hawks in her family?
The Latina maids are putting away the cups
and the silver spoons, sad to be missing out
on musica -- they seldom get to hear
in the hallowed halls . . . the valet sighs
as he rolls the carpets up and dusts the blinds.
Damn but a little Langston would be good
in this dreary mausoleum of a place!
Why does the White House have to be so white?
The chef from Baton Rouge starved for verse
uncensored by Homeland Security.
NO POETRY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!
Instead the rooms are vacuumed and set up
for closed-door meetings planning an attack
against the ones who always bear the brunt
of silencing: the poor, the powerless,
those who must serve, those bearing poems, not arms.
So why be afraid of us, Mrs. Bush?
You're married to a scarier fellow.
We bring you tidings of great joy --
not only peace but poetry on earth.
(this is from Poets Against the War, published in 2003, an anthology that Sam Hammill created from his Poets Against the War web site. He received an invitation from Laura Bush to a White House Symposium on "Poetry and the American Voice" Upon opening her letter he was overcome by a sense of nausea and disgust, having only recently read George Bush's proposed "shock and awe" attack plan for Iraq, which called for saturation bombing.)
by Julia Alvarez
The White House has disinvited the poets
to a cultural tea in honor of poetry
after the Secret Service got wind of a plot
to fill Mrs. Bush's ears with antiwar verse.
Were afraid the poets might persuade
a sensitive girl who always loved to read
a librarian who stocked the shelves with Poe
and Dickenson? Or was she herself afraid
to be swayed by the cooing doves, and live at odds
with the screaming hawks in her family?
The Latina maids are putting away the cups
and the silver spoons, sad to be missing out
on musica -- they seldom get to hear
in the hallowed halls . . . the valet sighs
as he rolls the carpets up and dusts the blinds.
Damn but a little Langston would be good
in this dreary mausoleum of a place!
Why does the White House have to be so white?
The chef from Baton Rouge starved for verse
uncensored by Homeland Security.
NO POETRY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!
Instead the rooms are vacuumed and set up
for closed-door meetings planning an attack
against the ones who always bear the brunt
of silencing: the poor, the powerless,
those who must serve, those bearing poems, not arms.
So why be afraid of us, Mrs. Bush?
You're married to a scarier fellow.
We bring you tidings of great joy --
not only peace but poetry on earth.
(this is from Poets Against the War, published in 2003, an anthology that Sam Hammill created from his Poets Against the War web site. He received an invitation from Laura Bush to a White House Symposium on "Poetry and the American Voice" Upon opening her letter he was overcome by a sense of nausea and disgust, having only recently read George Bush's proposed "shock and awe" attack plan for Iraq, which called for saturation bombing.)
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