H
e a r t S o n s & H e a r t
D a u g h t e r s
of A l l e n G i n s b e r g
N
a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 :
A r c h i v e s E d i
t i o n
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
[Originally
published in NHS 2009, http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs09/Andy_Clausen.htm.]