Showing posts with label Civil Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil Rights. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2016

LBJ's Villanelle: Old Chamberlain & Chambers of the Heart (Addition to "The Apology Box")




The Johnson name shall live forevermore
At home and overseas.  Of virile heart,
I shall not risk the loss of any war.

I’ll slay Jim Crow and poverty before
Another president can steel the part--
The Johnson name shall live forevermore.

I shall not ape old Chamberlain though war
Endangers plans at home. I've rhetoric's art--
I shall not risk the loss of any war.

No hypocrite, I've nitroglycerin for
Myself as well and lob it at my heart--
The Johnson name shall live forevermore.

Though pills roll out my mouth, I've countless more
To keep me standing as I ply my art:
"I shall not risk the loss of any war.

No, we shall overcome Jim Crow, the gore,
The jungles, and old chambers of the heart.
The Johnson name shall live.  Forevermore,
I shall not risk the loss of any war."


© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016
  
The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.