20 years ago
when I didn’t know much
I was asked where I stood
and I said I stood nowhere.
So I was asked
what if I was forced
to stand somewhere
and I said
if I was forced
I’d stand with the socialists
the communists.
Well,
one of my friends wanted to kill me,
and a bunch of them wanted
to track me down
and beat me up,
and another
kept asking me
for the next two years
how my North Vietnamese mates were;
and another friend
the wisest friend I knew then, said,
all I know is
there’s lots of people
escaping from the East to the West
but none going the other way.
And I had no answer to that
thought I just felt
there had to be something wrong with it
and I’ve thought about it
on and off
this last 20 years
and now
I know even less than then
I just thought of an answer:
people go to the racetrack
but it doesn’t mean they win.

*Ο Grant Caldwell είναι Αυστραλός ποιητής με βάση τη Μελβούρνη. Το ποίημα δημοσιεύτηκε στο πολιτικο-λογοτεχνικό “Overland” (τεύχος 125) 1991.