DANCING THE COMPROMISE WALTZ

by George Salamon

Congressional Republicans: They more or less held their ground when the government shut down after Friday's midnight deadline passed, and in the end, Democrats compromised way more than Republicans to open the government back up. —Amber Phillips, The Washington Post, January 22, 2018. Photo: Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) clink glasses in a toast Monday on Capitol Hill after senators reached an agreement to advance a bill ending government shutdown. (Andrew Harnik/AP via The Washington Post, January 22, 2018)

Since the Reagan revolution
Bulls have been running our lives.
Swearing to uphold the Constitution,
They dance to a Wall Street beat.
Other political animals are squealing,
They march right up to the bulls
Grunting discreetly under their breath:
Let's make a little compromise,
Just a tiny little compromise,
This time on immigration,
So that just a tiny bit of decency dies.
Whenever you seek to banish the
Better aspirations of this nation,
We'll stand up and fight you
Until we make just a tiny little compromise,
So that we can be sure
Just a tiny bit of freedom vanishes,
A tiny bit of equality is thwarted,
A tiny bit of hope is dashed
Until you kill the people's dream.
For which there may be no compromise.

George Salamon remembers helping voters to the polls in Massachusetts to cast their ballots for Adlai Stevenson in 1956. Were those the days?

OUTSIDE THE DREAM

by Lisa Vihos

“If you hear the song I sing, you will understand.”

—Chet Powers (aka Dino Valente), composer, “Let’s Get Together”

I woke up today
so far outside the dream
I was not sure about up,
down, or which way
would take me forward.

There are days like this
when everything is changing,
and I find myself a bundle
of concerns, a bundle
of desires, waiting.

I hear songs in my head,
voices of long, long ago
of a dream that others had
and a world that could be,
should be, might be.

If only I would do the right thing
say the right thing, write the right
poem. It's not up to me.
I am not it, but,
I am part of it.

My job: to remind you,
you are part of it, too.

Lisa Vihos writes poetry in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Her fourth chapbook Fan Mail from Some Flounder is forthcoming from Main Street Rag in 2018. She is an organizer for 100 Thousand Poets for Change and an occasional guest blogger for The Best American Poetry.