I Had A Dream Poem by Vincent de Paul

I am the president of America
Like the 44th president, I’m from Africa
First Lady, my wife, is Erica
She sleeps early, I work late
White House ain’t some holiday camp.

“I Have a Dream” speech
It’s in the US archives
It’s delivered by Martin Luther King, junior
I ain’t his enthusiastic supporter
I’m the 100th US president
And I had a dream.

I was aboard Air Force One
No fleet of fighter jets’ escort
I wanted to see the country I’s the president
The land of milk and honey.

Air Force One flew low and slow over the cities
I’s watching the Statue of Liberty;
Something’s wrong, my instincts’re right
Colonel Gibbs, pilot, was saying something
Air Force One was falling, plummeting
Air Force One was crashing; inferno, death.

I floated up there, or at least my ghost did
I’s adrift; Air Force One was going down, aflame
I overcame the shock quickly, I’s dead
I hadn’t said goodbye to anyone
Even to Erica, First Lady
I’m only forty-four, I thought
What a short life
And my career a brief tragic fiasco;
I wept.

Air Force One crashed on the motley quilt below
Volcanic orange flames erupted
The menacing flame burst consumed everything
Matter reduced to black-white cinders
I pitied the victims, I wasn’t one of them.

I’s no longer flying low-low-low
I was going up, up, up;
Flocks of birds flew beneath and by me
The sky a cacophony whir of emergency helis
Rushing to rescue the US President, me
What a waste of time and resources.

The clouds hugged me passionately
Only my dearest Erica did that
I was high over the Atlantic
Water aquamarine, turning wine black
The calico quilt spread below beautiful, real
I was actually seeing the country I’s the president
Mission completed
God Bless America.

Wind brushed my ears, the only sound
Mind’s in astonishing crystal clarity
Images clouded in quartz glass lucidity
Former US President’s life retrospective;

The days with my Afro-American parents
All the teenage hominess
The things I did in darkness
The forbidden fruits I ate
The clandestine cartels I ran
The Black Market no one’ll ever know of
The secret meetings of the brotherhood
The people I ordered to be killed
The mistresses no one knew of
The whole caboodle of my life
Was in stupefying limpidity.

Earth was growing below me
Landscape in minuscule
Quite a juxtaposition of all NASA pictures
Filled the sky in acuate topographical rivet
Ommigod! The grandeur defies description.

As for me, formerly the President of US
Was a flyspeck of human consciousness
The once greatest man in the world
Reduced to nihility
I’s going home
Heaven? No chance in hell
Hell? Heaven forbid
Yikes! It’s just a dream.