“I’m sorry,” said the captain
After killing your wife
Upon maiming your children
And wrecking your life.
“I’m sorry,” he said,
“The missile, it missed,”
Then took a step back
when he saw your clenched fist.
“That damn missile went left
when it should have gone right
–It’s so hard to see straight
in the middle of the night.”
“Please know this: America
does not want you dead…
“That missile was meant
for your neighbors instead.”
Joseph G. Ramsey, PhD, is an educator, organizer, scholar, and activist, located in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Joe is a Senior Lecturer in English and American Studies at UMass Boston, where he is an activist in the Faculty Staff Union (FSU/MTA), and a founding member of the anti-austerity Save UMB Coalition. His scholarly research area focuses on African American literature and the Left, with a book project in the works on the critical communism of Richard Wright. Joe is also an editorial board member at Cultural Logic, an electronic journal of marxist theory and practice, at the journal Socialism and Democracy, and host and co-producer of the pandemic-era internet show Shelter and Solidarity: A Deep Dive with Artists and Activists.
