Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Our Kind

Our mother knew our worth---
not much. To her, success
was not being noticed at all.
"If we can stay out of jail,"
she said, "God will be proud of us."

"Not worth a row of pins,"
she said, when we looked at the album:
"Grandpa?---ridiculous."
Her hearing was bad, and that
was good: "None of us ever says much."

She sent us forth equipped
for our kind of world, a world of
our betters, in a nation so strong
its greatest claim is no boast,
its leaders telling us all, "Be proud"---

But over their shoulders, God and
our mother, signaling: "Ridiculous."
















~ William Stafford

(huge h/t to Lance Mannion, who posted this...)

4 comments:

Podunk Paul said...

That's the damn truth, ain't it. We, none of us, have some sort of unique value that gives us a lock on worthiness. As much as I detest Trump, his bullshit is something that I have acquaintance with.

Ael said...

And yet, we're also as good as it gets.

FDChief said...

The thing about this, Paul, is that the degree that Trump shows how far We the People have traveled to failing to call ourselves - or our "leaders" - on our/their ridiculous bullshit.

The descent into incoherent, raging madness of the American Right - from Goldwater thru Gingrich to Trump in two generations - is the single most important story of our Times. The rise of ridiculous nonsense like Birtherism, the re-emergence of Tentherist claptrap like nullification and the "sovereign citizen" idiocy, the mainstreaming of moronic Republican intransigence on...well, everything not God, guns, snowflake babies, and killin' furriners should have had God and mother...and you and me and Matt Lauer and Al Roker and every cable news anchor living roaring "RIDICULOUS" at the top of our voices.

We didn't, and we don't. Is it any wonder that we now, we petty men, creep around the Trump lawn sign to find ourselves dishonorable graves..?

Anonymous said...

These days it seems you start yelling ridiculous at those who most deserve it, you could get dog-bit.



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