There was a time, both on this blog and on past efforts, when I regularly posted a poem on Fridays. Cos I like poetry, and it’s fun to share my favorites. I think I stopped from sheer inertia, but today I was going through some boxes of old stuff and found the book eWAC made for me for my 18th birthday, which has a lot of great poems in it, so I thought I’d maybe start up again. The poem below is posted in honor of our dear Governor Tim Pawlenty, who indicated in a conference call yesterday that he may invoke the 10th Amendment to prevent any of Obama’s healthcare reforms from taking effect in MN. Glad to know you, Tim.
Go West Young Man
by James Laughlin
Yessir they’re all named
either Ken or Stan or Don
every one of them and
those aren’t just nick-
names either no they’re
really christened like
that just Ken or Stan or
Don and you shake hands
with anybody you run into
no matter who the hell
it is and say “glad to
know you Ken glad to
know you Don” and then
two minutes later (you
may not have said ten
words to the guy) you
shake hands again and
say “glad to have met
you Stan glad to” and
they haven’t heard much
about Marx and the class
struggle because they
haven’t had to and by
god it makes a country
that is fit to live in
and by god I’m glad to
know you Don I’m glad!
