Shaunt Basmajian: Waving the flag for the wrong reasons

unable to find a good job
cope with urban reality
dance with the system
the post-downtown poet
tries to figure out ways
to avoid his life
like the rest of the 20th
century

in the back alley of an urban
north american street
he contemplates life
the sad state of the world
his existence
with and without reason

drinks a beer
at a down and out tavern
argues with a pensioner
about politics
the current state of the economy

waving the flag
for more deficits and wars
for more welfare cheques and
violence
for more crime and social injustice
for the next 5-10-15 years
waving the flag
without reason


Shaunt Basmajian, copyright 1987, from Biased Anthologies