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Michael Casey

 

Poet Michael Casey

(Source.com)

 

In 1972 Michael Casey won the Yale Younger Poets award for "Obscenities," re-issued by Carnegie-Mellon in 2002.  One gem among many in the book is the poem "A Bummer." In twenty-six stark lines, Casey depicts an encounter between a column of tracks (mechanized vehicles), a peasant farmer, and the TC (track commander).  The poem's last mordant lines and final barbed flourish could have been written yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Casey’s handsome letterpress collection, “Raiding a Whorehouse,” ISBN 0-938566-52-0) is available from Amazon. The Chickasaw Plum appreciates poet Michael Casey’s permission to publish this poem, which is as relevant today as ever.

 

 

A Bummer

We were going single file
Through his rice paddies
And the farmer
Started hitting the lead track
With a rake
He wouldn't stop
The TC went to talk to him
And the farmer
Tried to hit him too
So the tracks went sideways
Side by side
Through the guys fields
Instead of single file
Hard On, Proud Mary
Bummer, Wallace, Rosemary's Baby
The Rutgers Road Runner
And
Go Get Em-Done Got Em
Went side by side
Through the fields
If you have a farm in Vietnam
And a house in hell
Sell the farm
And go home

 

--Michael Casey

 

 

The Chickasaw Plum  -  Volume V - Number 11 - November 2008

 

 

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