Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Poetry Project, Day 20

so like, today's 4/20 duuuuuudes - are you in on the 420??? OK, now that some of you are wondering what the heck that means...I'll explain. For some reason (of which I'm not familiar) 420 means "friendly towards marijuana." Weed, Dope. Ganja. Happy-tobaccy. Muchie Heaven. Yep, for some really obscure reason, the numbers 420 are magical to Ricky Williams. Now, because my mother is reading this I should take a moment to say I've never smoked pot. I have been in the room when it was being smoked, and when the bowl was offered, I passed it on to the next person. So yes, Mom, you did your job well. No worries. But since marijuana has been blamed for some much, including a lot of things from Mr. Bob Dylan, I'm going to channel the pot gods now...oooooohhhhhhhhhhmmmmmm...damn. It didn't work. How about we just have some poetry? (Yes, I know you were wondering how I'd tie that in).


The Americans

An Immigrant working,
bent over the hot steel of the rails,
driving the spikes to build an iron road.
A slave, back crooked and teeth missing,
singing songs of praise on a Sunday.
The old man down the street in apratment 2A - he used to be a plumber,
but now sits to reading, only because he wants to improve himself.
Who sees them?

The man in his business suit from Armani talks on his cell phone,
He is too busy being important to remember those upon whose shoulders he stands.
Without electricity, he is nothing, knows nothing, loves nothing.
Tell me - where are those tough-skinned men and women?
They had the courage to say what needed to be heard.
Today, I'm looking for Americans - and I'm not sure I'll find any.

Thanks for reading.

The Fat Kid

1 comment:

Adam said...

Ok, because my curiosity was piqued a little, go here: http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/marijuana/a/420meaning.htm

Now to the poem. This sort of reminded me of a Billy Joel song, No Man's Land. But my mind's weird too, so take it for what it's worth. Interesting point about electricity, I wonder what other reliances one could also use in that question. And then we end with a little patriotically bleak rhetoric. An interesting progression.