JERRY’S PIECE
for the Oakland City Council
Thirty feet tall: up over your screen!
Well, it won’t have any trouble being seen.
A thrusting selection, a symbol of power,
Perfect for someone determined to tower
Over our landscape. “It’s a bit soviet,”
We’ll say to visitors, “But the mayor is Tsar, don’t forget.”
An anti aircraft gun, for a military school.
A kind of big fish in a little pool.
You say it doesn’t suit our plaza’s homey feel?
Or the people of Oakland, who are, somehow, more real?
Well, it was chosen by experts, with artsy connections,
Who state that our city needs bronzey erections.
So a thirty foot question has been dumped onto you.
Don’t fret. We’ll enjoy it, whatever you do.
Judith Offer has had two daughters, five books of poetry and dozens of plays. (Eighteen of the latter, including six musicals, have been produced.) She has read her poetry at scores of poetry venues, but is particularly delighted to have been included in the Library of Congress series and on “All Things Considered”, on NPR. Her writing reflects her childhood in a large Catholic family—with some Jewish roots—her experience as teacher, community organizer, musician, historian, gardener, and all-purpose volunteer, and her special fascination with her roles of wife and mother. Her most recent book of poetry, called DOUBLE CROSSING, is poems about Oakland, California, where she lives with her husband, Stuart.
More detailed information is available at www.JudithOffer.com
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