Poems Found by Poet Hound

https://sites.google.com/site/rhpquestions2012/deborah-scott
“The Hostile Witness” by Deb Scott

https://sites.google.com/site/rhpquestions2012/sara-amis
“How Fairy Tale Girls Get Lost” by Sara Amis

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Michael Grover's americanEyes V.1

Published by Alternating Current’s Propaganda Press in 2012, Michael D. Grover’s americanEyes V.1 is a collection about his view of the world as an American. The poems are stark and cynical. Below are a few of the poems that reflect the “wool being pulled off the eyes” as it were:

9.
I see through these americanEyes
& I see nothing
Can’t see past
The politics of fear
Everyone could be dead outside
& I wouldn’t know
& somewhere bombs are raining
From the sky
In the name of submission
& I wouldn’t know

I know in the mourning
mcdonald’s will be open on the corner
Pushing buttery death breakfast
Even in the hood
Especially in the hood
& who can refuse it
They kill Poets & ordinary people
Every day they will kill someone
Every hour
Every quarter of an hour
Every minute they are killing nonstop
& if you’re poor enough you can’t refuse
They are killing us

& I am blind
Seeing the world through americanEyes

In this poem, politics and corporate culture are killing innocent people abroad and just down the street. The poet says he is blind to it as an American and I have to say that the majority of us who watch the news turn a blind eye after a while. The information fed to us on the news is overwhelming and never-ending and so it may go in one ear and out the other while “Poets & ordinary people” die every minute. It is a morbid poem and touches a nerve in the reader as we recognize that we are blind, too.


17.
I see through these americanEyes
There’s a poor man forgotten
He was exiled by his own country
For the crime of being homeless
They don’t see him anymore
No one sees him anymore
He walks around like the walking dead
like the invisible man
Foreclosures are all the rage on the news
Because they are real
Funny how there’s not a lot of reality
On the news
Probably why I don’t watch it
Truth is we are all a step away
From being him
From joining him
He’s saved a space for you
Right in the front
He was exiled by his own country
He sleeps in the park
He sleeps in the car
He sleeps by the river
He sleeps in the woods
He sleeps in the streets
He sleeps in a shelter
He sleeps in an abandoned building
He sleeps on steam grates
Leaving a burn on his body
He sleeps on a bench
He sleeps where he can
He could be sleeping in your neighborhood
I know he’s sleeping in mine
Truth is we are all a step away
From being him
From joining him
No matter how hard we all try
To walk away from him

& I want to go blind
Seeing the World through americanEyes

This poem I feel more closely than any other. No matter how “secure” people were financially a few years ago everything we knew about a secure financial future crumbled around our ears. Retirees saw their accounts plummet, housing prices collapsed, countless people lost their jobs and plenty are still unemployed. Our friends, family, and neighbors are all falling on hard times and this poem above captures the scary truth. Any day now it could be me or you. One major disaster or several small misfortunes or any combination of things could put any one of us on the street joining the homeless man we’ve ceased to see with our eyes, our “americanEyes.”


27.
I see through these americanEyes
I see pharmaceutical ads on the tv
They tell you how sick you are
How much you need their pills
& the side effects they list
In a friendly manner
It’s all so friendly
Everyone is active & smiling
They all seemed so harmless
No side effects
No going blind
Seeing the World through americanEyes.

This poem hits home since I work in healthcare and there seems to be a pill for absolutely everything. Co-workers, colleagues, patients, they are all convinced that if they can just get the right combination of pills that their lives will be better, they believe the ads and the doctors. Personally, I take very few things, one of them being a multi-vitamin, but I’ve had many conversations with people who tell me they take 10 or 20 pills a day and they do not have any long-term illnesses or diseases, they are just regular people convinced they “need” these medications. One of the people I talked to simply began walking after work five days a week and marveled at the idea that they were now taking fewer pills because the exercise was lifting their mood and making them feel better health-wise. Imagine. This poem captures the whole sentimentality perfectly of pharmaceutical companies convincing people that pills fix everything.

If you enjoyed this sample of poems, you may purchase a copy of americanEyes V.1 by Michael D. Grover for $5.00 from Alternating Current’s Propaganda Press at:
http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#americaneyes_v_1

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Stony Moss Blog

Deb Scott out in the world! This is how you’ll be greeted at Deb Scott’s blog about her poetry, other poets, and other wonderful things. Be sure to check it out at:
http://stoneymoss.org/

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