And now our government
a bird with two right wings
flies on from zone to zone
while we go on having our little fun & games
at each election
as if it really mattered who the pilot is
of Air Force One
(They’re interchangeable, stupid!)
While this bird with two right wings
flies right on with its corporate flight crew
And this year its the Great Movie Cowboy in the cockpit
And next year its the great Bush pilot
And now its the Chameleon Kid
and he keeps changing the logo on his captains cap
and now its a donkey and now an elephant
and now some kind of donkephant
And now we recognize two of the crew
who took out a contract on America
and one is a certain gringo wretch
who’s busy monkeywrenching
crucial parts of the engine
and its life-support systems
and they got a big fat hose
to siphon off the fuel to privatized tanks
And all the while we just sit there
in the passenger seats
without parachutes
listening to all the news that’s fit to air
over the one-way PA system
about how the contract on America
is really good for us etcetera
As all the while the plane lumbers on
into its postmodern
manifest destiny

Analysis, meaning and summary of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem Bird With Two Right Wings

4 Comments

  1. Demosthenes says:

    Nonsense.

  2. Isaf Zakaria says:

    This poem depicts the post modern poetry period.
    “Bird With Two Right Wing” has a certain message which is the criticism to the American system a very ironic,sarcastic way.

  3. arash tavakoli says:

    his poem has only 3 linear degree of freedom!
    you cant roatate with his words in world!
    the spiritual words can get our hands and help us to BEAT MOVEMENT!

  4. samanda adams says:

    I liked it, I thought it was a veary meaningful piece of work, and, I agree fully with what the poet is tring to say and express . These things which aparently anger this man also irritate me . the whole goverment irritates me ! I hate the way they attempt to mold and conform the american people into something there not ! We are being robed of the most fundmental right to think ! Do not conform ! Do not let yourself be torn down and built back up ! well peace, bye..

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