Bobby's "History While You Wait"

All my stories begin with Ike.
I never grew up after that.
Kennedy got shot.
King got shot.
Vietnam got out of hand,
Johnson quit.
Kennedy’s younger brother
got shot. 
Minnesota’s Gene McCarthy
lost to Hubert Humphrey.
Nobody ever started in Seattle.
Harry Bridges, union man,
was the Queen City’s big name.

Nixon yielded to Ford
who yielded to Carter,
who was/is a good man but
Hollywood threw him out
and eight years ensued
for this asshole Reagan.
Daddy Bush lost to Clinton,
whom many love to this day,
but the Reagan acolytes
finished him off and Bush
Junior spent vast reserves
on his buddies and new wars.
Eighteen years after Chile,
a new September 11 . . .

Bobby remembers Berlin
with Cathleen.
Rebecca was dead, Paula
was over, only Cathleen
remained. Melindra
went on working, Cristina
stayed in hip-high hose.
Paula served him papers.
He was with Henrietta
in La Jolla when the call
from Cathleen came.
He recalls Checkpoint Charlie.
Cathleen took her savvy
to bed: you don’t fuck
for money and forget it.

(11 March 2013)

copyright 2013 by Floyce Alexander