National Security by Stan Salett

NATIONAL SECURITY
(With apologies to E.E. Cummings)

When every plane has
At least one air marshal
And each cruise ship sails
With a destroyer escort

When every letter sent
Is fully irradiated
And nothing I eat has
Passed through undocumented hands

When every mall and bodega
Are real time video surveyed
And all our telephones
Are randomly tapped

When we are continuously
Observed, monitored, cross-computerized
And professionally profiled
And there is only one safe-coded,

Data banked admission card For each of us, legally and loyally here
When every potentially hostile government Is overthrown and replaced
By active, debt paying participants
In the global economic community

Then I’ll feel safe

But not before.

Stan Salett
October, 2003