by Robert Riche
America, you arrogant brutal simmering pot
of financial crooks, screwed workers,
homeless mothers, you pungent stew
of torturers, imperial self-righteous vulgarians,
despoilers of all that's beautiful,
you potluck hodgepodge of horrors --
God bless you!
For the grace to pass the toque blanche
to one familiar with the unpalatable stink,
who brings a lost recipe to the table,
the flavor and nourishment
long promised, cherished,
remembered now.
Robert Riche: Two chapbooks, Eternity and Other Mundane Matters (Foothills Publishing 2007), On the Line (Pudding House 2008). Other poems accepted by Cape Rock, Clark Street Review, Pudding, Confrontation, Hawk & Whippoorwill, Shakespeare's Monkey, Pilgrimage, Passager, Aurorean, River Oak Review. National Endowment for the Arts grant, Connecticut Foundation for the Arts grant, Advanced Drama Research grant; winner Stanley Drama Award, Breadloaf Writers Conference scholar. Plays performed in numerous LORT regional theaters and in Bristol, England. Published by Samuel French.
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