Political   Poem   #1   (The   Schulz   Effect)

for Michael Bermudez

Hello there! Through the adopted public space
anyone can view, let yourself be heard.
One world is a pre-existing condition.
Every now and then pick up the pen, scratch
the screen, try to tap “ok” so we tenatively
take what we can. Laugh out loud at
what methods to sell me out from under me
I need to be free. Day after day friends join the ranks
of health care professionals for job security. Learn to offer
fewer answers on longer forms. Talking to myself
at a late night security job for health care
is a pre-existing condition. Headaches.
Silent fears that grip me, sell themselves
like the aftermath of a Charlie Brown, football removed.

~~~

Political   Poem   #22   (On   Nationalism)

Sold out, the jobs moved elsewhere
No future in the freement of walking forward

A mythic homeland is more important
Than the actual territory occupied

Where nationalism made Christianity its footstool
No tribe unites with another of its own free will

This poem gets two thumbs up
A broken arm and a few ground up fingers.

~~~~~

Various pieces by David Baratier have appeared in Court Green, Denver Quarterly, Fulcrum, Jacket, Verse and others. Anthology appearances include American Poetry: the Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon UP) and Red White and Blues (University of Iowa).  He has seven chapbooks, mild superpowers, and a book of creative non-fiction In It What’s in It. He is a lifelong vegetarian, the editor of Pavement Saw Press and lives an hour and five minutes from the nearest mall and poet.