i want to write a love poem (rewritten with Weirdelf's loving pen)

I want to write a love poem


I'm not carrying any banner,
just holding myself up--
poorer than I was,
more hungry for the world
you promised,
and now
instead of a love poem to you,
my dear Mr. President
of the boyish charms and smiling graces,
I'm afraid I'm here to remind you:
you've forgotten to whom
you spoke these words...

"YES, we can."

NOT to the politicians!
NOT to the generals!
NOT to the bureaucrats!

...but to the common folk who know
what it means to live the truth
at the bottom of the food chain,

you have forgotten how colour plays out
in the light,
you have forgotten that winds of change come with
the word "NO".  "I will fight no more forever."
for sticks and stones, bullets and bombs maim and kill,
when there is no one who dares (or is left)
to speak the truth...

you have forgotten Viet Nam, Iraq, Palestine, and Antietam, Nagasaki
and you will burden your children's children with the
wages of war in Afhanistan,

you promised
being black
you promised
being rich

we still are
we still are
we still can't pay for pain or illness
we still can't move without buying
we still can't always eat

come home to us
even if our need is selfish
come home to us
Mr. President

can't you see the world is slipping
away, heart=sick, restless, tattered-trouserd?

Winter's coming and the blue=needle of death waits for
the next faltering step.