Dear Mr. President There Was Egg Shell under Your Desk Last Night in My Dream

Dear Mr. President this morning i called my cousin in Wyoming his boyfriend was making the coffee like many good people do in this beautiful country my cousin told me to tell you it's madness you bring us when i told him i was writing to you today it's been awhile since i've seen you in person on the streets of Philadelphia you were waving and then you were speaking hey we've all heard the stories of your cocaine and booze and i want to say i'm sorry about your parents i'm sure other children of CIA brass need a little craziness to get a little loose do a line of coke get naked and run around campus were you freer back then of course you were i'm an idiot for asking and i remember cologne when you spoke in Philadelphia and i know it was your cologne you had that i'm-wearing-cologne air about you see i believe there's a big man inside you and yes we're angry right now yes it's about war yes it's about many things the things men with little time for love will impose on others and i wish i could say HEY we're all going to be dead in a hundred years so let's shift the pace let's forget about war let's pass a Let's Get Naked and Crazy National Holiday i wish it was this easy but nothing is ever easy with a man who has little time for love and a man with little time for love is really just a man who hasn't had love yet you haven't really had love yet there's no way you could have had love real love and not want every human body to have medical care if they need it have education if they want it have more time with their families and loves like we all NEED it Mr. President i'm worried your self esteem was damaged many years ago and keeps you from seeing us out here our bodies our black and white and red and yellow and Iraqi and Korean bodies and we're all a little fucked-up with our problems but i know i JUST know there's a big man inside of you big enough to really SEE need and offer without hesitation because you can because there is plenty you are stronger than your father's blueprints for your life i've seen your fingers in person you have nice hands Mr. President and they're your hands not your father's hands your life is your own it really is it belongs to you and love is waiting i have a lot of love Mr. President and i just want to press against you sometimes to let you get a little of it HEY i'm so serious about this let's go away together this spring just the two of us it's not a big deal don't even tell anybody i mean you're the president after all but there's a marvelous stretch of woods where i grew up we could smoke a little pot to wind you down get you out of your oval office mode maybe a little wine i'm sure you need a good massage maybe we could go to the creek and paint secret mud symbols on our naked bodies like i used to do with my first boyfriend what happens after that will be fine you'll see it will be okay the break in the woods has the best flowers to rest beside in the sun and you will awaken with a crown of honeysuckle beautiful man that you are a real leader of real lives who can change the world

with real love waiting for you
CAConrad

this poem also appears
in the book DEVIANT PROPULSION

(Soft Skull Press)

this poem also appears
in the anthology STATE OF THE UNION: Fifty Political Poems
(Wave Books)