N a p a
l m H e a
l t h
S p a
: R e
p o r
t 2 0
0 9
ANDY CLAUSEN
Now We Won
Now that Obama is president
we can say it's all good
and it will be true
Obama
Now we won't have to despair 24/7
6 hours M thru F on the
phone two weeks
to get a response from
HMOs
won't have to worry about
your friend
the sculptor, the
carpenter, the activist
diagnosed with lymphoma
on the day
she got laid off on
the day his
retirement went
bust
won't need contemplate
grandma
giving up her house
that grampa built and
wanted to leave
to you
because her medicines,
treatments, helpers
cost more a week than
anyone in her family
ever brought home on
a paycheck
Now that Obama's president
there'll be a job corps
with okay wages
& health care
It'll repair our roads,
mend bridges
retool auto plants,
cook for the needy
reinforce levees, lay
track for super rails
efficient inexpensive
clean smooth
It'll green everything
that needs greening
Artists will paint
colossal murals, conduct workshops
in the hood in
village
Poets will be paid to
walk the streets and report
teaching
performing inspiring
Now that Obama's president
So called fundamentalists
all over the world
repressing and
killing to avenge God
Will be reborn in love
& forgiveness
Israel & Palestine
will strike a deal
live and let live,
will do projects
together
Teachers won't have to teach for the test
they'll be allowed to
make learning enjoyable, honest
True acceptance of our gay brothers and sisters
is imminent, legally,
culturally, from the heart
Prisons will be humane
Education and opportunity for secular redemption
reducing the repeat
Pot will finally be legalized
maybe have the status of
say beer
Now that Obama's president I'm going to have time
and the clear conscience
to write all those
human interest anecdotes,
elegant love verses
and eloquent descriptions
of vistas and mountains
and language spewing
without laws
with my notebook by the thrashing stream
Now that Obama's president
the azure splendor, the
celestial monotonous grandeur
the glistening bodies of
weightless copulation elation
the parallel universes of
literature & film
the bottom heart
explosions of blues
born of themselves
transcending
the dancing seqins of the
warming lake
the insides of the tree,
the oak & pine
the tree of life none
of it
will seem false
anymore
We are no longer evolving into our enemy
Now that Bema is president
Democracy Now
Goodman & Gonzalez
will have
only good news to
report
We'll sign a treaty better than the Key Oh Toe treaty
Now that Obama's president
the folk that bend back
and ruin their hands
harvesting and
processing our food
will live the good
life
their kids can look
forward to going to college
There's peace in the desperate blocks
the ghettos, favalas,
barrios
trailer parks, row houses
OSHA's more than a busy signal
Right Now that Obama's president
minds, money, resources
are gestating
a culture that
doesn't encourage violence
that doesn't reward
it
It's going to be great
security & freedom
one
We One
We won the whole world won Obama's president
when someone says enjoy
or have a nice day
I won't have bad feelings anymore
I won't be a curmudgeon
I'll bop & hop down they sidewalk drenched
in sparkling molecules
Golden birds mating above me
forming a halo
A mind in love with the present
in love with the traffic
and the changing light
O light O much maligned ray of hope
be thou not corny
O magnanimous Infinite light
O Infinite love no limits no rules light
Now that Obama's president
we can kick back and par
tay
Obama