Welcome to my Washington - pipTalk Forums

How to Join	Member's Area	Private Library	Search	Sanctuary		Login
Main Forums	Discussion	Tech Talk	Mature Content	Archives	A home without a wall, Our haven without ends, A circle we all call Our Family of Friends!

Open Poetry #17

Welcome to my Washington

Glenn Logan
Member

since 2001-10-10

Posts 111
Virginia

0 posted 2001-12-03 11:49 AM

   City of suits and stuffed people –
   black city
   with white icing –
   Washington,
   you have been mine and I yours
   for thirty-two years
   of grind, grind, grind
   without changing gears.

   White city – city of monuments;
   green city,
   with flowers always planted while
   in bloom –
   brown city of food preparers,
   cleaners of offices,
   mowers of lawns, planters of flowers.

   City of beauty – beautified by
   the labor of the poor,
   so that they may live in squalor –
   a city fed by the poor
   so that they may eat your scraps,
   and fight their way
   to their garbage cans past
   big cockroaches and small rats.

   Marble city – but city of monumental
   hypocrisy and unworried corruption –
   of God gave us the right,
   and nobody’s going to notice what we
   do, anyway –
   of corrupt, proud leaders
   who believe themselves most ethical,
   and will gladly tell of their sacrifices.
   Home of the Nation’s judiciary, lead
   by a Chief Justice, and other Injustices,
   of astonishingly political partisanship
   which none in town
   will dare to notice or to comment on –
   heading a court system of
   marble virtue and massive hypocrisy.

   City of corruption, city of Congress –
   six hundred strong –
   yet at least five hundred weak –
   of a few who act, though many speak.

   Of these, there are the Republicans
   who favor cost-cutting,
   except when it benefits themselves –
   who profess to want nothing
   but cheerfully taking all they wish:
   especially government guarantees
   that each of them will get very rich.

   The Democrats often are no better,
   although if caught, it is said,
   they may profess a bit more shame –
   and they will also, of course,
   gladly cause your local post office
   to bear a former colleague’s name.

   But it is Congress’ appropriations
   that decide how your
   money will disappear –
   and that’s when Congress becomes
   a giant pork factory
   that is run – strange as it may seem
   to say – by its biggest pigs!

   But not all of Washington is so lofty –
   yet another capital city gets by in the
   deep shadow of the
   capitol’s white-painted cast iron dome,
   on which some
   poor old green-patined lady stands alone.

   For many in this capital city are simply bureaucrats
   moving paper sheet by sheet, or placing
   words letter by letter on a glowing screen –
   creating nothing –
   not pig iron, nor plastics, nor wheat,
   nor corn nor beans nor potatoes nor meat –
   just moving paper –
   just shuffling papers, or putting words
   on a computer screen –
   that’s what they do –
   that’s what we do – and that’s what I do.

   Washington, D.C.:
   Pork Barrel of the Nation, Rule Maker,
   Stacker of Papers, player with roads and
   dams and post office names;
   on your slim shoulders,
   an empire rests.

   NOTE: More of my poems can be found at:
   http://www.geocities.com/glennlogan/index.html
   http://www.poetrypages/pages/glennlogan
   http://mywebpage.netscape.com/gloganpoet/gloganpoet.html

Mother_Earth
Senior Member

since 2000-11-20

Posts 1370
1/2 year Texas & 1/2 year Michigan

1 posted 2001-12-03 12:08 PM

Glenn, boy, have you hit the nail on the head!! And to think most of these people in DC at least where put there by our votes! Now who is to blame? A lot of what you say can be found in any of our 50 states, but more so there. New York was built by the poor for the rich and it is the same today. It is a "love- hate" affair. You painted a not always pretty picture. Thanks for sharing

	⇧ top of page ⇧
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.