Obama and me;
I dreamed of us recently,
how we came to be,
him in 1961
in a world
of ukuleles,
warm ocean breezes,
lazy days
and crashing waves
where people greeted each other
with Aloha;
me in 1938
in the Grand Canyon State
under a blazing sun
that spun
100 plus degrees
and gave birth to folks
who loved rodeos
ten gallon hats
and pointed toe boots
and yelling Yee Ha!

I dreamed of how
handsome he is actually
and how guapo I might look virtually
if I had Photoshop fluency
to any degree.

In the dream I challenged him
to a “Who’s the Smartest” fight
and it turned out that I’m intelligent a mite
and he’s way off the chart bright.
But he brought shame on his brain
when he asked me if I wanted to
play him one-on-one in a basketball game.
Secret Service became quite alarmed
and said I was making a mockery of him playing with one arm.
I said “Whatcha go’ do ’bout it?”
and the dreamed changed in form
before they did me any harm –

on to how there’s so much about the two of us that rhymes,
that sings, that rings:
He was nurtured and raised in the arms of his mother,
a beautiful woman
and her parents. His dad was mostly unseen.
My remarkable mother brought me up along with my grandpa in a similar looking scene.
Love tinted our upbringing.
and set our minds buzzing and thinking
of ways we could contribute
to the making
of a world that is more to our liking,
he from a position of tremendous responsibility and high authority
and I, based on my age, in society, from a position of seniority.

So I asked him in the dream
since we seemed
to contemplate so many aspects of the same things,
how it was that we could go about what we’re seeing
in such different ways.
I said, “Hey, why couldn’t you have bailed out a few common folks
along with the
so-called pillars of society
and corporations and industries?
I mean aren’t there non-profit entrepreneurs
and facsimiles thereof
who have managed well
who could have sat at the table alongside
those Wall Street CEO’s in conversations about how to boost the economy?
Pray tell why aren’t some of those high scaled criminals in prison
for their roles in nearly bankrupting the country
while they played with their millions upon millions
of do-re-mi?
And I will never understand
how you as “the Man,”
could just ignore our brothers
Cornel West
and Tavis Smiley
who have the ears of so many
as though they have absolutely
nothing to bring
when they sing
everyday of the needs of those on the streets,
of the poor,
the downtrodden,
the perpetually forgotten:
down and out whites,
blacks,
browns…
members of the inner cities
and towns…
How is it that you who
as I do, too,
believe that climate change,
due to global warming, is a reality
yet you seem not to see how absolutely dangerous
nuclear power can be,
how there can arise a calamity
beyond any normal savvy.
Do you not remember Chernobyl?
Have you not seen the dog and pony show
used to sway our thinking in
reestablishing the reactor in San Onofre,
along a wondrous beach in San Diego County?
Oh, don’t you wonder what the children will say
about us some day
when nuclear energy does them away
and radioactive particles
live to see many a new day?
How can you treat Bradley Manning,
who let us in on the know,
like some lowdown traitorous so and so
when anybody who brings us such truth
should be viewed as a true hero?
How can you talk of ending wars
while our drones
kill children at play
indiscriminately?
How can you continue the torturing
and the rendering
of enemy suspects
to those who take
the abuse of human beings
to calamitous degrees,
when morality cries
for more hopeful levels of ways to be?
Guantanamo still houses detainees
as though the Geneva Conventions
require no more heeding
than a sitcom comedy!
How does this sit with your call for us to act at home with
‘passion and dedication’ to broaden equality
and prosperity
and nurture democracy
on a planetary basis?
Where is the dignity?”

And Obama said to me:
“Hunh! It’s so easy to complain
but I love you
and all detractors just the same.
Look, bro, I’m just trying to maintain.
You must understand how this presidency thing
is extraordinarily insane.
While folks like you rant and rave
and speculate
I have to spend each moment
that I breathe
to set so many things straight
that just thinking about it
makes me buckle at the knees
but allow me,
if you please,
to blow my horn
in the key of C
cuz I want to lay this out
in as simple a fashion as can be.
Who do you think
got that extended health coverage for children
and got a few million people insured?
Me. And do you know what I had to endure
to make sure
that such could be?
Do you know what it takes
to recapitalize banks
and get a stimulus bill and reforms going
to ease the pain of a crippling recession
that bordered on another Great Depression?
Ever tried to seek pay equality for women,
make food safe,
pay black and Native American farmers
who had been wronged,
cut funding for space shuttles
and moon missions
that had been overspending for far too long?
Huh, do you?
Do you have the slightest idea of the B.S.
you have to walk through to expand stem cell research,
get bureaucrats to recognize the dangers of carbon dioxide,
and increase Americorp in size,
draw down the War in Afghanistan,
deal with those clowns in Iran,
up benefits for GI’s,
trash talk Mubarak to get him to go,
aid Gaddafi’s foes,
help bin Laden get to those
virgins he wanted to know,
get troops out of Iraq,
which made a lot of sense
of what had been sheer
unadulterated nonsense,
end purchases of the F-22
which had never been put in use,
reconsider and monitor warheads and
missile defense,
reduce the budget of the Department of Defense,
help South Sudan declare independence,
put some GM cars and Chryslers up for sale
and repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
and support gay marriage
and liberty for all as well,
get a few countries to like us,
to work with us
so we don’t feel so alone,
crack down on bad for-profit colleges
with their kick-ass student loans,
get the government to now issue such loans,
entice states to initiate school reforms,
pass credit card reforms,
look for fraud and abuse in stimulus spending,
boost fuel efficiency,
help a few nations avoid crises with their currencies,
create some “engaging China positively” strategies,
extend unemployment benefits,
invest in renewable technology,
give broadband internet coverage for
lower income rural families,
regulate the tobacco industry,
make green leaders out of federal agencies,
try to close dirty power plants,
improve school nutrition,
extend hate crimes
and wilderness and watershed protection,
broker speedy compensation
for victims of the Gulf oil spill,
craft school tests that are supposed to be more reasonable
for the next generation,
reduce sentencing disparities
between crack versus powder cocaine possession
in our too often unfair society,
take on the preponderance of guns
and violence
that have led to far too many tragedies,
nominate and win seats for the first Latino/Latina,
on the Supreme Court,
the third woman,
followed by a fourth to so serve?
Let me tell you to do all that
you need a healthy dose of swagger
and a deep reservoir of nerve.

And as I push on,
they can say about me
that I’ve gone about my work
scandal free –
So, I ask you, my brother,
in all that I have done,
haven’t we as a nation,
in so many ways won
some breathing room,
some space
for us to gain ‘Faith
in America’s future?’
What will your role be?”

“Fair question, Mr. President.
When I rise from this dream
I’ll remind folks of what you’ve
just said to me.
I’ll use my energy
to support you in my community
and influence with all the power within me
how you proceed
in your presidency.

I’ll work against nuclear energy
that threatens humanity.
I’ll work to see Bradley Manning
set free.
I’ll work against the drones
and tortures
and the rendering
that expose a flaw in our nation’s humanity.

I’ll stand with Cornel
and Tavis
to just get you,
when you set policies
that directly affect them,
to call them by name,
the poor,
and act in their name.

I’ll forever appreciate
your idea
of nurturing democracy
for all human beings collectively.
All because I, like you, seek
a world where everyone
can live in dignity.

You said the other day: ‘My fellow Americans,
we are made for this moment
and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together.’
And I agree.
We, as a nation,
can seize the opportunity
we have to make a better world
for the future of
all the boys and girls.”

Ah, Obama and me.
Aren’t dreams a gift
to humanity?

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Ernie McCray

I was raised in a loving and alive home, in a black neighborhood filled with colorful characters in Tucson, Arizona. Such an environment gave me a hint that life has to be grabbed by the tail as tight as a pimple on a mosquito's butt. With no BS and a whole lot of love. So, from those days to now I get up every morning set on making the world a better place. On my good foot*, and I hope my writing reflects that. *an old black expression

Latest posts by Ernie McCray (see all)

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