An Apology For Wannabes Poem by Jefferson Carter

AN APOLOGY FOR WANNABES



Not one Apache
in this audience
listening to the
bearded white man
tell stories
about Cochise.
Easy irony? I know,
& some of us are
wearing Geronimo
Homeland Security t-shirts
& yes, all of us
are sweating
like converts trying
to imagine
that shining camp
upon the hill
or a raiding party
trotting down Wall Street.

In this Age
of Irony, let me,
as one of our
political sock puppets
used to say, let me
say this about that-
without us,
the lessons you
learn from history
would be noisy
as a marching band
& empty as a Kleenex box
on the table
outside some senator’s
office door.