Friday Poem: "I Have Served My Country"

I Have Served My Country

I have served my country daily in the faithfulness of folly
Weighed the hard choices which I was careful not to make
Offering my willing cowardice in the face of public nonsense
Layering abstinence and sarcasm in its wake

Surreptitiously declining to honor rituals of polity
Vagrant on Election Day generally in disregard of fealty
Harboring the conviction that all our rules are rancid
And even at the risk of sadness keeping sour truth at hand

The times that I was harmless although few are thorough
The days I overslept and hardly meddled so many
And many times I cleaned my  plate gaily gladly
Thankful for the luxury of being left alone

Out of complexity of principle I turn my back on beggars
And although somewhat ambivalent sneer aloud at money
Nor have I permitted piety to trespass on my thinking
But have listened to the sermonizers with mind averted

And tolerate dull statesmen those most pernicious poseurs
Dreaming like every condemned man to secretly outlive them
All in all I’ve led a blameless life if life you’d call it
And am ready if they need me to hide where they’ll not find me

9/11-9/13, 9/24, 12/5/98, 5/20, 12/19-20, 12/24-12/26/99

Copyright 1999 by Maurice Leiter

Posted with permission.