Babysitting for National Security

by Tom Fillion

In 1961 it was nuclear warheads in Cuba

And Khrushchev yelling “Nyet”

That had us crouching under our desks

At Catholic school

Then came Vietnam

That turned out to be

A parlor game of dominoes

Like the old Cuban, Spanish, and Italian men

Play at Centro Asturiano in Ybor City

After that came a beach party

And bravado in Grenada

Gulf War one was a textbook example

of how the West won a battle

in a much larger conflagration

and Gulf War two was an example of

if at first you succeed go back

and fuck it up

with party favors and yellow cake

and now it is a war against immigrants

characterized as “invaders”

from banana split republics

who come armed with weapons

of mass desperation, travail, and children

and border agents greet

and treat the boys

to an old Walmart

with American incarceration

made in China

the youngest and the girls

have not been seen

but somewhere in America

babysitters in night vision goggles

are protecting us

from toddlers

with Pablum and diapers

We’ve come a long way, baby!

Thomas Fillion is the author of 5 novels and 2 books of poetry. A new novel, The Year of Broken Glass, is in the works. A number of his short stories and poems reside online. He graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa and is the third generation of his family to work at Mt. Washington Cog Railroad in New Hampshire. His experience as a waterbed set-up man inspired The Dream Mechanic, a colorful look at 1970s Me Generation. His teaching career began at Hillsborough County Adult High School as an English and math instructor. In 1991, Desert Storm, he was an English language trainer for the Royal Saudi Air Force in Taif, Saudi Arabia. He has also taught Ringling circus children and was a private tutor for Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys. For twenty years he taught math and coached track, tennis, and golf at Robinson High School. He is now gainfully unemployed, i.e., retired, and spends his time writing, riding a bicycle along Tampa’s Bayshore Boulevard and Riverwalk, picking a guitar, grilling some dinner, and traveling to New Mexico and Vermont. @dream_mechanic, facebook.com/dreammechanic, https://thomasmfillion.substack.com/