When I am a mother my hair will be waves
like the hair of my mother before me.
My children will long to lay mortar.
In the heart of this city I'll show them
a towering slender steel building which tapers, is topped by
a drunkard's idea of spacecraft. I'll tell them,
"America pierces the sky with a saucer
for nothing except for so people can reach it,
so people can pay for the fact they have reached it.
America's captured a sky, and the sky was not always
as blue as the eyes of my parents before me."
In the heart of my home in the dark
I will say to my children
as we are all crouched in the corner,
"Be silent, American hivelings. Be still
lest the naked bear get thee."
When I am an elder my hair will be sparse
like the hair of the old folks before me.
I'll say to the children, who swarm my stiff knees
and who long to spread outwards,
"God does not pick sides, but we chose him.
We are his choosing people. We've claimed him.
America's planted a flag on the moon
and has wired the wind so it billows
and stands still erect in the barren and humorless silence.
America's chosen both God and the moon
and there's still many choices before thee".
In a bare-slatted room, by the warmth
of the furnace, I'll tell them,
"Ai-ae-ya, be still, O America's larvae.
Be still lest the men of old get thee.
Lest the kings from the hills jolt awake like the tales
of my bearded godfather before me".
©2005-2009 =mngamojemo
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Submitted: August 9, 2005
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Submitted: August 9, 2005
File Size: 1.7 KB
Image Size: 0 bytes
Resolution: 0×0
Comments: 96
Favourites & Collections: 86 [who?]
Views
Total: 2,555
Today: 0
Downloads
Total: 234
Today: 0
Thumb
Author's Comments
The Space Needle got me musing on the nature of American society.
Daily Deviation, 2006-08-02
When I Will Tell Children by =mngamojemo is a sociopolitical poem with a twist, and a strong anapaestic rhythm to boot. (Featured by `PoeticWar)
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Commentsvery well written and incredibly accurate. Also agree with the 'right' thing to tell your children during motherhood.
Thank you.
-- ...with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. I like this. Especially the continual reference to your ancestors. It is very well written too, as Wile said.
-- Comments on my art = Love. Please comment. Because for every second you don't, God kills a kitten. We're going down, down in an earlier round And Sugar, we're going down swinging I'll be your number one with a bullet A loaded god complex, cock it This poem goes real deep , i really like the angle you have took while writing this , from the different view
to be truthfull it sounds like it could be a song , or a inspirastional poem that a mother would sing! very well done  (Y) your a fine writer! keep it up-- ~Mace07 is a Digital Assasin for Peace ~ Thank you.
-- ...with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. To be honest, while I read a poem it is good if it puts certain pictures in my mind and this one just didn't do it. Maybe you should use more adjectives or describe the scenes and feelings a bit more.
And if I'm allowed to ask, was the patriotic feel I got intention or ironic wise? Thank you.
-- ...with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Ironic-wise. This poem's meant to be pretty ambivalent, with threatening undertones.
And how strange to have failed in imagery. I always thought my weak points were coherence and clear meaning. Thanks for pointing that out. -- ...with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. I have put a little more imagery into the poem, on your suggestion.
-- ...with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Beautiful piece, very well written. It would be interesting to have a conversation between a child and a mother, with the child asking questions and the mother commenting.
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