Sunday, January 11, 2015

Poetry Sunday


The 114th Congress convened this past week, with conservative majorities in both houses. Although I'm fundamentally conservative myself*, some of the new (and many of the old) Republican members scare me as I think about the future they're trying to bring about ... and what that future portends for what's left of the middle class ...

Middle-Class Blues
by Dennis O'Driscoll

He has everything.
A beautiful young wife.
A comfortable home.
A secure job.
A velvet three-piece suite.
A metallic-silver car.
A mahogany cocktail cabinet.
A rugby trophy.
A remote-controlled music centre.
A set of gold clubs under the hallstand.
A fair-haired daughter learning to walk.

What he is afraid of most
and what keeps him tossing some nights
on the electric underblanket,
listening to the antique clock
clicking with disapproval from the landing,
are the stories that begin:
He had everything.
A beautiful young wife.
A comfortable home.
A secure job. 
Then one day.

I hope I'm overreacting ... but my fingers are crossed.

Have a good day. Keep an eye on the people you elected ... I predict some buyers remorse cropping up pretty soon.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* I know it must be hard for some of you to believe, but I am ... I voted straight Republican from Richard Nixon through the first George W. Bush administration before the party drove me away. I just believe in thinking outside the hyperconservative GOP box and showing a little more compassion and a little less xenophobia than most present-day Republicans.

3 comments:

eViL pOp TaRt said...

A profound poem. The comfortable are not immune from worries that they might lose the blessings that they have. Definitely a message for contemporary times.

Mike said...

Every year I look for a Republican to vote for just so I can say I'm still Independent. But it has become a nearly impossible task.

Elvis Wearing a Bra on His Head said...

The poem has a depth to it that is profound, yet sad.