Work Type: Ray Romine Poems

If civilization decides to crumble,
There won’t be enough to even rumble.

The male’s taste runs to filthy lucre,
A haze of tobacco smoke and euchre,
Talk unprintable and loud:
“I’m SUPERIOR–am I PROUD?”
But then, the female’s just as bad
(She inherited, from her dad);
Could male be deadlier, more vicious
Than the female of the spicious?
I’ve said before: I’ll say agin:
Our civilization’s pretty thin.

The auto-horns we tolerate;
Detroit and all that racial hate;
Congress with its loud debate
That “fixes” everything–too late;
Bureaus, questionnaires, red tape;
The jobs we loathe, but can’t escape–
I only lately realized
We aren’t exactly civilized.

That desk with cigarette-burns marred;
The garbage dumped in our front yard;
The goop-head we call “quite-a-card”;
The crime that should be locked and barred;
Poets unfeathered and untarred,
All go to show that you can bet:
We aren’t civilized, as yet!

A broken bottle in the street;
The stuff the butchers sell for meat;
The things we preach, the while we cheat,
All prove, I’ve said, and I’ll repeat:
Our civilization’s not complete.

We drain our purse and spend the dregs
To see the famous Grable legs;
Picture post-cards show the trend
Toward which the Movies once more bend–
And though we treat it matter-of-factly,
We aren’t civilized, exactly.

A man(?) with no more on the ball
Than John L. Lewis stops us all;
(We oughtta give this ape a Jail
With bars and windows, but no BAIL)–
We follow him, although our sons
May die for want of planes and guns.
No, we’re not civilized, you see–
At least, it sounds that way to me!

Now, when we’ve won this little war,
We wanta bite us off some more–
Share our manners, meat, and syrup
With those thankless folk in Europe;
Seek out the Asiatic Chap,
And toss our learning in his lap;
Teach ’em tomorrow how we today
Live the Good Ol’ Yankee Way!
But African, on far horizon,
What’s meat to us may be his p’izon.
Did “Culture” of White Man and his wife
Improve the American Indian’s life?
Turn your eyes to Tokyo–
We “civilized” the EAST, you know!
I’d gladly civilization proffer,
If I thought we’d spare to offer!
In this idea I’m immersed:
Let’s CIVILIZE AMERICA FIRST!

Whole-heartedly you don’t agree?
You may be civilized more than me!

by Ray Romine Wednesday, June 30, 1943