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May Day, May Day - 2024 (poem)

By John Crandell

Forty nine years ago yesterday I'd sat up all night, while Saigon fell
          listening to Beethoven's Third, on repeat (repeatedly)
Firestorms, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards
          twelve months going forward, plus a fall election
The approach of a half-century anniversary - 2025
          and the idea of a dictator-in-chief Putin Oval Office place
Of what once was a democracy
           summons images that only Hieronymus Bosch would have created
None the worse than what native peoples experienced
          following Plymouth Rock, following March 8th, 1965 at Da Nang
Opus 55, in E flat major and a summer's heat ahead

2nd day of May - 2024

Barry Romo is gone, left our world yesterday

—John Crandell