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Waging Peace

John Copley Alter: Conscientious Objection


When my draft board finally agreed to grant me

conscientious objector status and allowed

India to be the place to do my service

I felt very much like Brer Rabbit did I

 

imagine as he tumbled head over heels

into the briar patch, free of Brer Fox and free

of the Tar Baby and home at last.  Now I leave

you to figure out the allegory, offering

 

what exegesis I can only if you

insist.  Home is something of a state of mind.

The Tar Baby is patriotism, which makes Brer

Fox the political machine who finds the

 

nonchalance of the liberated individual

infuriating.   The briar patch—blessed uncertainty!

 


 

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