Betting on America

By  Craig Kirchner

I wanted to leave, you said no.

I wanted you to come with me.

Malta became a reference point,

a not so funny inside joke.

I was no longer betting on America,

a personality disorder was President.

He appointed a sexual assaulter

to be his Secretary of Defense.

You said you wouldn’t leave,

the grandchildren, no passport

and I was reminded of our move here,

the drive, 12 hours of holding hands,

relief from a job you came to hate,

worked until pension was good, and

insurance for life, the next day, happy

on our way to the Sunshine State.

Ten minutes from the kids, a cool condo,

elevator, woods out back, what’s not to like,

I threatened to leave, but I wouldn’t go

anywhere without you.

I don’t pretend to know the future,

but it’s shaping up hateful, worth fearing.

I’m about 8 to 5 on my country,

you’re going to have to lay eight to get five.

Thing is, for seventy-five years I would

never speak of laying odds, never believe

there could be fascism. All my life I was all in

on you, of course, and America, all in.

Craig Kirchner is retired and thinks of poetry as hobo art. He loves storytelling and the aesthetics of the paper and pen. He has had three poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels. He houses 500 books in his office and about 400 poems in a folder on a laptop. These words tend to keep him straight. After a writing hiatus he was recently published in Poetry Quarterly, Decadent Review, New World Writing, WordSwell, 7th Circle Pyrite, Edge of Humanity, Fairfield Scribe, Fixator, Flora Fiction, Globe Review, Hamilton Stone Review, Ink in Thirds, Spillwords, Sybil, The Argyle, The Lake, Timada’s Diary, Unbroken, Unlikely Stories, Valiant Scribe, Variety Pack, Versification, Wild Violet, Wise Owl, Yellow Mama, Young Ravens, Arlington Literary, Glacial Hills Review, Your Impossible Voice, Mad Swirl, Oddball Mag, Zin Daily, Poetry Breakfast, One Art, The Main Street Rag and several dozen others.