by Berry Friesen (November, 2008)
Oswald didn’t fire the bullets
that remind our leaders
to wield their powers with great
care.
He was standing at the entrance
of the school book depository,
watching like the rest.
“I’m just a patsy,” he told the world,
someone fixed to take the blame,
then die on national TV.
Though the facts were on his side,
we had more important things to
do
than insist justice have its
day.
Blaming Oswald became our ritual,
the Kool-Aid we sipped
as we rose up through the ranks.
It conveyed sophistication
to disdain conspiracy
and not go digging in the muck.
So no surprise when our new leader,
who sparks our hopes and
emboldens our dreams,
says he’ll hunt the dead bin Laden
and treat official crimes
with benign neglect.
This is how he shows he’s ready
to wield the power
and look under the rug.
And we, party to ambition’s bargain,
celebrate his wit and steady
grace
mourning the mettle we have lost.
---first published
in Water from Another Time: Today’s Questions, Yesterday’s Wisdom by
Berry Friesen (Masthof Press, 2010).
