I received the poem Oh Say Can You See in 1982. I use the word received because the words woke me abruptly in the early morning demanding to be written down. It's been edited very little and I do not claim it to be a good poem. It was eventually published in the University of New Orleans' student literary journal, Elipsis.
These poems or messages from beyond have come to me since I was a child. I share this one so the generations after me know that just as the individual self spirals around personal issues, the collective spirals around the cultural and political issues. There are definitions below.
Oh . . . say can you see
by the dawn’s early light
the shining egg wash
on the apple pie
Mama baked last night.
Oh . . . say can you see
at the twilights’ last gleaming
the funny yellow haze
scaring the city
while the dragons lay dreaming?
OH! say can YOU see
the bombs bursting in air
while Uncle’s* hubris
gingerly fingers
our most barbaric flair?
Say! Can you SEE
the mirror images
cast before grinning
teeth made white by years of
fluoridated Kool-Aid?
You! Seeeeeeeee
the great ball
with pock marks
from greasy
grimy gooey
Yum, yums.
SEE!
The ESTers*
The questers
The charismatic* flip
flops turned white
with doughboy* fear.
Oh Say Can You See - Elispsis, 1982
Art: Premonition, Remedios Varo, 1953
*Uncle Sam The abbreviation of United States
*ESTer - Erhard Seminars Training aka EST. Its offspring is known as Landmark Worldwide
*Doughboy - U.S. infantrymen in WWI
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