Comp 225a Poem by Tom Courtney

And now I am to know comparative politics
i.e. the Atlantic area and all that that entails
primarily the American, English and French
when I barely know each nation alone

Another task to take me soaring
far beyond my comprehension and into
the realm of aching neck muscles
torn connections with my past
a task with dubious value in regards to
my future enlightenment or employment

A book a week is all we ask
and all critiqued. No analyses if you please
whatever I can to please those minds
far more advanced than mine

I tear the pages from the texts of my memory
and patch them together into an ersatz concoction
of grade requirements and manage to pass
my first upper division monstrosity with a b+

And I don’t know why we are compelled
to study such tracts as detailed as phone books
and dictionaries

If all I have to do for the rest of my life
is to classify the classified ads
I have now acquired the discreet comprehension and technique
requisite for the task

Comparative political systems! Mish-mash
I’m in a political stupor
Mixed ideologies, parallel bureaucracies, personal histories
No man can say the ways of the world
I fear this politics is not a science

Let us all better muddle along
in our prejudices and instinctive inclinations
the true bedrock of democracy in action
The sorting and sifting of passion and intellect in history
will be seen in a time farther along into the future
than as of this sitting