“Everyone knows socialism
Is kaput, Marilyn says,
dead as a doornail, discredited
since the fall of the Berlin Wall,

how can you call yourself
a socialist – I mean, after all
the terrible things
that have happened?”

“Don’t you read
the New York Times, Jack?
Don’t you watch
the evening news?”

“Yes, terrible mistakes
were made,”Jack says,

“From the zigs and zags
of agricultural policy
to the theory
of socialism in one country,

from the sweep
of Stalin’s prison camps
to the lack
of workers democracy.

In the end the workers turned away
from the Party,
a bureaucracy in the name
of socialism ruled,

though that doesn’t mean
the workers of the world won’t
rise up, plant that flag
again and again

until we get it right,
find the solution
to war, poverty
and unemployment –

who knows, with a little courage,
learning the lessons of the past,
maybe sooner
than some people think,

Just look at the BP oil disaster
and the stock market crash,

I mean, capitalism isn’t
doing so well these days,
in case you hadn’t noticed, 
Marilyn,”

“Yes, Marilyn says,
gazing inwardly,
“Yes, that is
true. “

(this poem is reprinted from Chrishe Summer, 2010
issue of Blue Collar Review)