Essay

The Goose

By Muriel Spark

Do you want to know why I am alive today?

I will tell you.

Early on, during the food-shortage,

Some of us were miraculously presented

Each with a goose that laid a golden egg.

Myself, I killed the crackling thing and I ate it.

Alas, many and many of the other recipients

Died of gold-dust poisoning.

The con job

By Charles Bukowski

The ground war began today

At dawn

In a desert land

Far from here.

The U.S. ground troops were

largely

made up of

Blacks, Mexicans and poor

Whites

Most of whom had joined

The military

Because it was the only job

They could find.

The ground war began today

at dawn

in a desert land

far from here

and Blacks, Mexicans

and poor whites

were sent there

to fight and win

as on tv

and on the radio

the fat white rich newscasters

first told us all about

it

and then the fat rich white

analysts

told us

why

again

and again

and again

on almost every

tv and radio station

almost every minute

day and night

because

the Blacks, Mexicans

and poor whites

were sent there

to fight and win

at dawn

in a desert land

far enough away from

here.

Garrison, Keillor, Good Poems for Hard Times

Muriel Spark, "The Goose" in Good Poems  14

Charles Bukowski, “the con job” in Good Poems 119-120