TEACH TO THE TEST

by Phyllis Frakt

What is “rule of law”?

What stops one branch of government

from becoming too powerful?

What is the supreme law of the land?

What does the judicial branch do?

 

I slip through a distorted looking glass

to prepare the class for US citizenship,

to speak, read, write simple English,

and recite answers to 100 questions

about American history and government.

 

On their side of the looking glass,

I simplify revered founding principles

that most of their American neighbors

learned in school, then forgot.

But the class must learn and remember.

 

So, we thrash through a verbal thicket –

pursuit of happiness, colony, revolution,

Civil War, civil rights, Constitution,

democracy, Confederacy, emancipation,

declaration, representation, discrimination.

 

They grasp at historic words and principles

as keys to permanent homes in America

with steady income, education for their children,

safety from vicious gangs or husbands,

freedom from fierce dictatorships.

 

Feliz once was a high school teacher.

She escaped violence, and cleans houses now.

Selim and his family fled their country,

running from false government accusations.

No job back home for Abeo, a stutterer.

 

On my side, I cringe at lessons about

civic ideals now sullied or out of reach:

no one above the law? checks and balances?

The class waits patiently for me to explain,

and I slip back through the looking glass.

 

Phyllis Frakt's poem "Recoveries" will appear in the upcoming edition of Worksheets 67. She lives in New Jersey, where she has volunteered as a citizenship teacher for ten years.

CHECKPOINT

by Alejandro Escudé

San Diego County middle school teacher Shane Parmely was detained for more than an hour by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in New Mexico because she refused to say whether she was a U.S. citizen. Parmely’s family helped her film the incident, which she posted Friday evening on her Facebook account in several segments that were widely shared. Parmely told Border Patrol agents that she believed she did not have to answer their questions. One agent showed her a card listing immigration law and a Supreme Court case decision that give Border Patrol agents authority to operate checkpoints within 100 miles of the border and to ask questions about citizenship without warrants. —Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2017

You can read the officer's question
On the road: "Citizens?"

It is written in moon-white
And it is perfect in its dimensions

Like a geoglyph or an alien crop circle.
It will not wear away.

The teacher's answer is also on the road,
Afloat like a raven's feather

That refuses to succumb
To the asphalt, a ragged wind-bone,

A time traveller without an end.
The tumbleweed heart of New Mexico.


Alejandro Escudé published his first full-length collection of poems My Earthbound Eye in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches high school English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

by F.I. Goldhaber

Image source: The Journal of Personal Cyberconsciousness

First Abraham Lincoln let them live longer than people.
Then the U.S. Supremes gave them personhood and freedom.
Privileges of citizenship -- free speech and the pretense of religion
-- to gain tax reductions and eliminate workers' rights.

The president wants to allow their interests to supersede
sovereign nations' ability to serve their people.
Laws protecting safety, clean air, public health, will be waived
if it's possible they'll inhibit corporate profits.

Protection of corporate revenue will usurp all
individual rights to free expression, privacy,
due process, and the ability to afford housing,
food, medical care, education, transit, internet.

Forget about human rights. Only corporate power
carries any weight. They bought the U.S. government and
many of the world's leaders, jailing any who speak out.
They negotiate in secret to take away more rights.


As a reporter, editor, business writer, and marketing communications consultant, F.I. Goldhaber produced news stories, feature articles, essays, editorial columns, and reviews for newspapers, corporations, governments, and non-profits in five states. Now, her poems, short stories, novelettes, essays, and reviews appear in paper, electronic, and audio magazines, ezines, newspapers, calendars, and anthologies.  Her latest book of poetry, Subversive Verse, collects poems about corporate cruelty, gender grievances, supreme shambles, political perversion, and race relations.