Call Now

It's not raining out now
I know, because the TV guy
said the rain would taper off hours ago.
The radio guy said it, too,
so I know it is not raining out now.
They both quoted the National Weather Service,
and if that's not a good source for
meteorological information, then I do not
know what is, so it is not raining
outside now, and when my neighbors
complain to Homeland Security
about dancing naked in the rain,
I'll be able to say to the nice officers,
"Hey, not true.  Word from the Capitol
is the rain is done, over,
so the rain and me were
never seen together."

Needs Discretion

The troubled guests on our dark earth
remain asleep on the living room couch
surrounded by images from around the world,
different cultures and styles moan
each time the guests turn over,
fear the day he wakens
and hates what he sees.

The wind from our cd burners
has blown away our ethics
and now we can have pop hits
and rhythmic African postal workers,
burn songs with the autumn
leaf piles, hang them in the garden
to scare away birds and snakes.

Just call me Bill Gates, and
resent me with gifts and favors
in hopes of a major investment
but please don't tell Melinda I was here
I'm traveling incognito, without
my Frisco image consultant.

Rings of light explode from the wall,
I talk to my selves from other dimensions
and try to remember what they say.
They must be real because I imagined them
and the passengers want to throw me off the ship.

Adin Greene

There will be no flag for Adin Greene this year
as there has been in the past,
when his name appeared on an unquestioned list
of local veterans of the Civil War
and therefore qualified for a flag
placed upon his grave
each and every Memorial Day.

There will be no flag for Adin Greene this year.
Revisionist historians came along
and posited the theory
that his 1860 death
disqualified him from service
the following year.

For decades, he got away with it.
His son, Adin Greene, fought
with the Vermont 10th Regiment,
while all the father had to do was live
the life of a normal citizen
to be honored, but that is no longer enough.
There will be no flag for Adin Greene this year.

There will be no flag for Adin Greene this year
because although he worked hard all his life
pioneered a village from forest,
experimented with democracy,
served as Town Clerk for three years,
and did all of that heroic nation building stuff,
he did not kill or die in a war.
So, we will no longer honor him.

So, no, Adin Greene, born in Connecticut,
1793, died in Vermont, 1860
will no longer be remembered,
his name no more recited by school children,
nor his grave cleared away every year.
No longer is he a patriot
no longer a citizen
worthy of remembrance.

There will be no flag for Adin Greene this year.

Jon Mathewson

ForPoetry