Toggle Menu

Not for Me

I think I'd rather not belong At this point to the Falun Gong. The exercises don't look easy, And doing them might make me queasy

Calvin Trillin

August 5, 1999

I think I’d rather not belong At this point to the Falun Gong. The exercises don’t look easy, And doing them might make me queasy If all the time I had to dread A policeman’s club upside the head Or being snatched and sent away For education, as they say, Where I’d be told to disavow All teachings that are not from Mao, Which these days is a paradox, Since Mao did not teach tips on stocks. So, thanks, I’d rather not belong At this point to the Falun Gong.

Calvin TrillinCalvin Trillin is The Nation’s “deadline poet.”


Latest from the nation