Mr. Write's Page

Amil Quayle is a writer, painter, and river guide from Nebraska. Last year, he published a book of poetry that ends with the poem below, a tribute to John Lennon, updated for our time.

The world Amil imagines is impossibly utopian, of course, but I like the way he highlights some of the numerous ways we’ve managed to screw things up.

—————

Imagine

Imagine if all the golf courses in America
were turned into communal vegetable gardens.
All the private lawns
turned into private vegetable gardens.
Each family
owning one small car for transportation.
Every person
having enough to eat before going to bed.
Every farmer
living on the land he farms.
All the food
without additives or preservatives.
The cancer rate
dropping every year.
Every citizen
having free medical service.
People
not having to live in cities.
Trading
with each other on a local level.
Knowing
the money would stay in the community.
A society
not based on the profit motive.
Water
that is clean and pure.
Air
that is clean and unpolluted.
Families
not broken up by industry.
Religions
not based on the profit motive.
War
as a forgotten concept.
Enough
of everything to last ten thousand years.
People
not wanting to own, control, or use it up.

Amil Quayle.