Guess who is not invited to come to a dinner here?
Rights are just for some people. Others have to disappear.
There is no bias in denials of our services;
we shall not break bread with those who do not think just like us.
Injustice anywhere’s a threat to justice everywhere;
but this discrimination, hear, is right. It’s only fair.

We do not serve their kind here at the Red Hen Restaurant.
This isn’t like the time when some were turned away. It’s not.
That would be wrong to turn someone away for whom they are.
That would be wrong to treat someone like that. That’s gone too far.
We only want to keep that kind out of our restaurant.
We only want to keep that kind out. That is all we want.

 

Uclis Weebeard is a poet and a true follower of the Troll King.

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The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


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14 Responses

  2. Anonymous

    I am sure your opinion is the same for when a conservative baker denied service to Vice President Biden back in 2012?

    https://www.roanoke.com/webmin/news/radford-bakery-that-turned-biden-away-sells-out-of-freedom/article_806b06ac-b68b-58ca-be58-5a46a0461bb5.html

    You conservatives seemed to be championing the right of small businesses then, no? Let’s be honest, folks, the GOP has lost its intellectual integrity since bowing down to Donald Trump. He’s a moron, a blatant liar, and not even really a conservative. I do not understand how some of you seem to turn a blind eye to his non-Christian morality (sleeping with porn stars? grabbing by the pussy?) and his big-government nationalism. Integrity doesn’t matter anymore, and neither does ideological consistency.

    Reply
    • Leo Yankevich

      Anonymous,

      At least the Donald, our glorious übermensch blond leader, is not a hermaphrodite libtard. Where’s your integrity when you go both ways. You don’t even know who fathered or mothered your children! All hail Trump!

      Reply
    • E. V.

      Good evening, Anonymous. I don’t believe that Joe Biden’s and Sarah Sanders’ situations are comparable. To avoid alienating (republican) customers, the bakery chose not to permit CANDIDATE Biden to host a CAMPAIGN event there. However, to the best of my knowledge, the bakery never refused service to private citizen Joe Biden if he wished to purchase any of their products. In contrast, Sarah Sanders was on her personal time and behaving as a private citizen when she (and her family) were rudely ousted from the restaurant.

      Since it feels more natural to address a specific person by name than to talk to “anonymous”, please consider identifying yourself. We poets don’t bite. Well, some of us nip a little, but it’s not as if you’d need a Restraining Order.

      Have a nice holiday weekend!

      Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      Who, Anonymous, is the real liar and blatant moron here? Methinks it’s you. Obviously you are someone unfit to benefit from a robust economy — in other words, a dink.

      Reply
  3. Amy Foreman

    Another sharp commentary, Mr. Weebeard! Once again, you have nailed the hypocrisy of the intolerant preachers of tolerance. Nicely done.

    And this is a perfect, Suessian storybook end line: “We only want to keep that kind out. That is all we want.”

    Reply
  4. Sally Cook

    A fine comment, in style and message, on the current bone-chilling hypocrisy. poem. I would like to see more.

    Reply
  5. David Watt

    Mr. Weebeard, I enjoyed your incisive commentary as always. Not to mention your humorous pseudonyms!

    Reply
  7. Uclis Weebeard

    Warning! Critical Comment!

    There were two stories about a little red hen that my grandmother told me when I was little. One was about the little red hen and the fox, who captured her, but due to her ingenuity and sewing skills she escaped; and a second about an industrious little red hen, who asked for help all along the way from planting seeds to baking bread, but upon receiving no help, did not share the bread. Neither of these stories contributed to the poem, though they are in the background, and, I suppose, the title.

    The poem uses first person plural placing it into the political realm.

    The opening line is a play off of William Rose’s screenplay, made into a 1967 movie: “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”

    Line 2, made up of two simple sentences, reminds me of the communists in Orwell’s fable “Animal Farm” and the social engineers in Vonnegut’s dystopian short story “Harrison Bergeron”: simple and matter-of-fact, but horrifying in their consequences.

    Line 3 continues on in typical newspeak, that is, ambiguous, euphemistic language, the kind that plagues New Millennial discourse.

    Line 4, entirely monosyllabic words, utilizes the phrase “break bread” which suggests sharing a meal with someone, just as it suggests celebrating the Eucharist, Christ’s last supper.

    Line 5 takes a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, and slips it neatly into the iambic heptametre.

    Line 6 continues the doublespeak with the imperative, echoic “hear”.

    Line 7 is reminiscent of signs in the 1950s and 1960s in American diners, where certain people were considered not acceptable.

    Line 8 continues the emphasis in stanza 2 upon extremely simple diction, explaining the reason for such behavior noted in line 7.

    Line 9 makes a moral statement that line 10 reemphasizes in a parallel construction.

    Line 10, like line 8, concludes with a terse sentence.

    Line 11 gives the rationale for a decision of not serving people of the wrong political persuasion.

    Line 12, again, the second in another pair of parallel lines, finishes up with, as Ms. Foreman has identified, a “Seussian storybook endline”; hence, the title’s tag “a Good-Night, Bedtime Story for Our Time”.

    What I enjoyed most in this poem, in language usage, was the long strings of monosyllables. I remember from the 1960s, when I was listening to popular music, the longer, alliterative strings of words that John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful used in his lyrics, like “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind”, “Didn’t Want to Have to Do It”, and “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice”, I was amazed at their effect; and then later when I came to the musical speech of Dylan Thomas, in poems, like “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” and “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, I became more aware of the interesting possibilities of longer strands; and here I got to use them; fun, even while dealing with serious ideas.

    Reply
    • Amy Foreman

      Bruce, one of the great things about you as a literary critic, is that, in the absence of any thorough analysis given by others on your work, you analyze your OWN writing–and do it with style and aplomb! Like the indefatigable Little Red Hen , you calmly state: “Then I shall do it myself!”

      I especially enjoyed the glimpse into your inspiration for the use of long strands of monosyllables in “The Little Red Hen, a Good-Night, Bedtime Story for Our Time.” Cheers!

      Reply
  8. James A. Tweedie

    Thank you, Uclis, for the annotations. It is always entertaining to catch a glimpse of your imagination at work!

    As an aside, Mr./Ms. Anonymous does provide a small service insofar as they remind us that the SCP is grounded in a common love of poetry and does not simply exist as a political echo chamber filled with people who see the world through the same pair of glasses. Having said this, I encourage everyone to respond to both poetic form AND content with at least some measure of decorum. In this matter, I think, Anonymous’ comment has fallen considerably short.

    Reply

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