THE LETTER
Prompt : Write a poem or story using words from a famous letter or inspired by a letter someone sent you.
CLEAN-CUT HEROES
The clean-cut heroes made it easy for us then
Black and brown, fasces and swastika
Swagger on parade, dirty work out in plain sight
We saw them coming, saw their dark souls
Knew to weigh anchor and sail for safer shores
They still stand in plain sight.
They still hate, still scape the handiest of goats,
In softer voices now, in pastel shades and gaudy rags
Cherry chinos and mustard cords
By way of Zuckerman's Home for Inglorious Patriotism
Fight or flee, the choice is still there
Force the clean-cut to reveal snarling fangs
Drag the black and brown from behind their suited bluster
Shine the light on the creeps beneath the stone
Their heroism is paper thin
Footnote : Inspired by a letter Albert Einstein wrote to his friend and colleague Paul Habicht in 1935. He described the timeliness of his leaving Nazi Germany in 1933 with the line "I weighed anchor just at the right moment from there, so that I at least didn’t get to feel the claws of the clean-cut heroes in my back".
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