Dispossessed (a Lieutenants defense) Poem by Richard Lloyd Cederberg

Characterization. A creative adaptation from personal real life encounters.
 
My family seems
Perplexed with
The kind of person
I’ve become.
How I live,
These hands of mine,
My fingernails and rings,
This old pea-coat and worn shoes,
The weatherworn skin, and long hair…
But look at me,
What do you see?
Are these the EYES of insanity?
NO! They’re not! They’re the EYES
Of ‘I don’t give a shit’ anymore…
You copy that?
 
Oh…
Sorry ’bout it.
I’m plain-spoken.
What’s that?
You don’t care?
You want me to be open?
Ok…
Well…
I’m a Vet.
Vietnam.
First Lieutenant.
Air Mobility Assets.
Battle of HO BO Woods’ what changed me,
1966. 1st Bn, 27th Rgt, 25th Division. 25 killed,
32 wounded, ceptin’ me, I lived. Me!
What’s that? An occupation?
Yeah!
I was a Professor of Philosophy and
Economics for fifteen years before
The pricks punched my number.
Why?
Never really knew.
Too forthright I guess.
I realized early on I was training young
People to be slaves in a soulless machine
Whose only purpose was to churn out Automatons
For the global work-market and a lifetime
Of servitude and tax paying, so I began
Teaching what the students needed
To be creative happy citizens;
But them a’ holes didn’t like that…
 
What’s that?
My name?
Whiskey Sierra Papa!
Yeah! That’s my name.
What?
My personal philosophy?
Are you kidding me?
Really?
Wanna nip ‘a hooch first?
No?
Well… ok.
Here’s to ya’ stinkpot.
 
So here’s how I see it…
I began
In convergence
Just like every other human,
A divine revelation, (perhaps) or
A sperm lucky enough to find the egg,
The passions of MALE and FEMALE merging,
A momentary lapse of morals
(Possibly)
Finding a kind of fruition,
Without scrupulous filtering,
Or evolutionary impediments,
Or something more cryptic
To equivocate things even more,
 
I became something unique,
BIRTHED
Just like you,
Against all odds
And all wars that
Raged against possibility,
I became ME (in a world of ME’s)
Endeavoring to be apprehended, in
Spite of all booby traps and busybodies…
 
Ever coping to realize
A consummate expression,
(Whether accepted or not)
Another ego espousing humility,
An idealist treed in a shitty-system
Repudiating man’s despairing struggle to
Be more than just a hollow-sound in a global
Village of meez and yuze vying to one up
The swarms of prigs all maneuvering to
Lord it over everyone around them,
 
YEAH! That’s how Whiskey Sierra Papa sees it.
Huh? Sum it up?
 
Ok! On and on it goes, pal,
In this world of friends and foes,
And regardless where the river flows,
And despite who thinks I’m just another
Wayward f… who made a lotta bad choices,
I have found this one concept truly unfeigned,
That until MY leaf falls from the tree,
I will continue being ME… Dig it!
 
Hey… you wanna nip ‘a hooch ‘for ya’ go?
 
.
© richard lloyd cederberg 2018
 

 

______________________________________________________________________________

BIOGRAPHY

Richard is the progeny of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants. He was born in Chicago Illinois. Richard began his journey into the arts at age six. For twelve years he played classical trumpet. The British incursion of music, however, influenced him to put down the trumpet and take-up acoustic and electric guitar, and, to write songs and lyrics. He toured professionally for ten years. In 1995 Richard was privileged to design and build his own Midi-centered Recording Studio ~ Taylor & Grace ~ where he worked diligently until 2002. During that time he composed, and multi-track recorded, over 500 compositions and has two CD’s (‘WHAT LOVE HAS DONE’ and ‘THE PATH’) to his personal credit.
.
Richard’s interest in writing continues. His poetic invention is integrative and employs various elements: nature, history, relationships (past and present), parlance, alliteration, metaphor, characterization, spirituality, faith, eschatology, art, and subtext. Avoiding the middle-road; he enjoys the challenge of poetic stylization: Rhythmical, Poetic/Prose, Triolets, Syllable formats, Story-Poems, Freeform, Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, and Acrostic. Richard’s work has been (and is) featured in a wide variety of anthologies, compendiums, and e-zines including: Poetry Life and Times, Artvilla, Motherbird, and The Path. Richard was nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.
.
Books include: 1. A MONUMENTAL JOURNEY… 2. IN SEARCH OF THE FIRST TRIBE… 3. THE UNDERGROUND RIVER… 4. BEYOND UNDERSTANDING. The Monumental Journey Series is a confluence of adventure, mystery, and historical fiction. A new adventure/thriller, BETWEEN THE CRACKS has been published. Also, a new eschatological drama – AFTER WE WERE HUMAN – is being written. Follow the lives of several friends as a race of ageless multi-dimensional humans comes back to Earth with their Creator to rule and reign for 1000 years.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times his publications include All the Babble of the Souk and Cartoon Molecules collected poems and Key of Mist the recently published Tesserae translations from Spanish poets Guadalupe Grande and Carmen Crespo visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds) and his latest Collected Poems Volume at Next-Arrivals

Share and Enjoy !

Shares