I want to thank all

My fellow Americans

On this very special day.

I could not have made

It here without you.

I wanted to live to see

If the last 64 years

Really happened or was I

Imagining all this shit?

From 1948 on, you gave me

Korea, McCarthy, the H-Bomb,

Vietnam, Nixon, and Neil Diamond.

After that, you gave me Anita Bryant,

Meat Loaf, Reagan, and then,

Oh you shouldn’t have–Dan Qualye.

But you didn’t stop there.

You gave me Rush and Bush

And one big whacky Party.

Well, you know I threw all

That shit in the garbage; didn’t

Even pass it on at a yard sale.

Because all I really ever wanted

Was justice and peace and freedom,

And some really good (and cheap) pot.

I’m still waiting for these gifts,

My fellow Americans. And for

You to maybe smarten up a little?

Not too much to ask for.

I’m getting old and I expected

Things to get better decades ago.

So come on now and get with it.

I mean, Obama?  I already

Got one of those in ’92.

And what’s all this other shit

About women and unions and gays

And immigrants and Muslims?

Like, what the Hell happened

Since the birthdays of

The fifties and sixties?

I know you gave me assassinations,

But there was some good stuff too.

Trouble is, that stuff got broke.

So I really need that stuff again,

And also some new stuff that

I can count on to last.

Because I want a birthday where I

Don’t have to say: “Oh you shouldn’t have!”

But simply: “Thank you. It’s just

“What I always wanted.”

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

(Happy 64th, Petey! Many More Happy Complaints!)