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Friday, November 2, 2012

Poetry Friday: If a Song Could Be President

I'm tired of all the political commercials and phone calls and speeches and debates. You probably are, too. Soon it will be decided and life can move on for another four years. In the meantime, I'm enjoying Over the Rhine. I hope this song brightens your Poetry Friday. Be sure you vote!

More poems brighten the day at Mainely Write.



If A Song Could Be President 

If a song could be president
We'd hum on Election Day
The gospel choir would start to sway
And we'd all have a part to play

The first lady would free her hips
Pull a microphone to her lips
Break our hearts with Rhythm and Blues
Steve Earle would anchor the news

We'd vote for a melody
Pass it around on an mp3
All our best foreign policy
Would be built on harmony

If a song could be president
We'd fly a jukebox to the moon
All our founding fathers' 45's
Lightnin' Hopkins and Patsy Cline
If a song could be president

If a song could be president
We could all add another verse
Life would teach us to rehearse
Till we found a key change

Break out of this minor key
Half-truths and hypocrisy
We wouldn't need an underachiever-in-chief
If a song could be president

We'd make Neil Young a Senator
Even though he came from Canada
Emmylou would be Ambassador
World leaders would listen to her

They would show us where our country went wrong
Strum their guitars on the White House lawn
John Prine would run the FBI
All the criminals would laugh and cry
If a song could be president.

8 comments:

  1. Fun song! Thanks for sharing some lightness during this aggravatingly dark political season!

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  2. Love this! What a great find. Favorite lines:
    "We could all add another verse
    Life would teach us to rehearse
    Till we found a key change"

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  3. This is wonderful! Yes, I'm tired of it too, and I'm being spared most of it, being out of the country. I sent off my absentee ballot yesterday.

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  4. Love this! Especially the last line. Yay for Bob Dylan in the UN! Thanks for sharing this. We all needed it. :)

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  5. Thanks for this break from all the political hoo-haw!

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  6. So many wonderful lines here! My favorites are:

    The first lady would free her hips

    and

    Steve Earle would anchor the news

    and this whole verse

    We'd vote for a melody
    Pass it around on an mp3
    All our best foreign policy
    Would be built on harmony

    A lot of truth in these lighthearted lines. Thank you for sharing!

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  7. Dori, this is so hopeful. I wish, I wish. Like Laura, I love that verse that ends "All our best foreign policy/Would be built on harmony". I hope whomever will be the 'next' will end the wars so all the families can be together again. Thank you!

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  8. Just what I needed, Doraine! Thank you for sharing. xo

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