poem of the day 04.15.14

american confederacy embassy (liverpool)

standing there on menlove avenue

about a block from where john lennon dreamed the beatles

my wife and i are waiting for a bus

to take us back toward penny lane

when this old man tells us that there’s

an american confederacy embassy building still standing

somewhere in the heart of downtown liverpool

although he’s not sure what street it’s on

he thinks it’s near the slavery museum

i say, oh really? in an inquisitive way

but i’m not at all interested in seeing it

we’ve been in england less than a week

and there’s already been a mass stabbing in pennsylvania

and another mass shooting in texas

i can’t escape the savagery of america from across an ocean

so i don’t plan on seeking it while i’m on these shores as well

i wonder why the old man would think

we’d want to see something like that anyway

maybe we look primed for a good joke

the american confederacy was as much of a folly

as anything else produced in the united states

the edsel of self-rule

the old man takes my liverpool map

he starts scanning the streets looking for the place

i really should tell him to stop

but i’m too tired to tell anyone what to do

he seems like a nice guy anyway

he’s been to america

brooklyn, seattle, houston, and san francisco

so he probably knows how fucked up we are

how addicted to the bloodshed we’ve gotten

maybe if we met in new york

we could have a nice chat about the falklands

get those fine english hands a little dirty too

but i really don’t want to see some confederacy building

while i’m on vacation

i just want to get on and have the #76 bus show up

see some more beatles stuff while the wife and i are in liverpool

maybe where george harrison or paul mccartney lived

see some beauty, something positive

let the history of violence in america

wait until i’m back across that ocean

where the barbarism wafts out of every window

like the rich scent of dinner

on a humid summer night.