Two White Wines Poem by Robert Ronnow

Dinner with old friends:
salmon with red cabbage, asparagus, Caesar's salad,
      penne with broccoli, two white wines.
Jane Jacobs could analyze how it all got to our table
or even how their daughter came to us from Cambodia.
The economy or market bringing a thing of beauty, the
      farms, the trucks,
such comfort. The ancients knew this too
yet we are anxious about famine, genocide and nuclear
      war.
How can we organize (govern) ourselves to end self-
      imposed suffering?
That Quebec and Puerto Rico may secede peacefully at
      any time a majority chooses is a source of pride.
      Why not Kurds, Chechyns, Tibetans and
      Armenians?

Difficult to write a poem about it. At table, candlelight,
      we debate
or whine about the other side winning and making a
      mess
of our lives. The election could be stolen, tampering with
      voting machines,
what policy question does that possibility raise? War in
      Iraq,
school testing, prison population. Religion, the abyss
      surrounding the
little promontory life.

It'll all work out in the end. Go to your daily practice, be
      a good citizen.
Another failed effort to write what I mean. Such
      confusion, yet
two white wines.