Foia Follies Poem by David Floren

Freedom of Information
Is an Act, not a right.
It’s fairly tight-fisted.
You might say unfair.
It would be revealing

To lay bare some sealed docs
Showing Hugo Chavez
(in his declamations of coup attempts)
Was dead right on this question,
And not just a feisty rambler,
Offending everyone he can’t sell.

Wouldn’t it be some news
To read some declassified doc
And learn of our filthy, unclean hands?
Isn’t Lavos sus Manos among the
Rare laws Carl’s Jr. enforces?
Don’t bother me, I’m eating.

I try to imagine what average Johns
And Janes might be thinking
When (or if) they read or hear
The rankled Hugo’s accusations.
My imagination fails me,
Brittle faith in abstraction.

John X could care less.
Jane Y must confess
She’s zenophobic.
And citizen Z forgot all about
The XYZ affair, what it taught
About diplomatic shenanigans.

I’ve read up on some things
Modern Latin America, magazines.
Enough to know a man can’t
Shoot himself with an uzi
60 times, patiently reloading
Fresh clips in Santiago, Chile.

It takes more than John Kerry
To expose a vast and scary history.
The U.S. State Department
Denies involvement in any coup
To topple Mr. Chavez.
Wouldn’t you?

If you were planning to oust
A democratically-elected leader
While playing the democracy-seeder
In sand- and strife-strewn Iraq,
Wouldn’t “mum” be the best word?
“Help the Shiite. Help the Kurd”

(While feigning to help the Sunnis) .
Our boys are there, Support Our Troops.
Venezuela? The neocon loonies
Have flown their coops.

While the media busies itself
Reengineering the chromosomes
Of attention and concern,
A few holdouts (loved less than
Rebels Luke, Han or Chewey)
Use FOIA to see what they can learn.


[12-31-05 Berkeley, CA]