Jonathan, I felt your poem was well written and successfully portrayed the tensions and fears of the 1960s. The part that spoke to me was, “The stacking of metaphoric bricks Strengthening together like a wall.” Were you speaking of the Limited Test Ban Treaty negotiation issues between Kennedy F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev? Alternatively, was the strengthen of the wall a reference to the problems surrounding the East and West in Berlin? As I read that portion, I imagined the metaphoric bricks stacking upon one another to form concrete bricks in the Berlin wall. Each brick represents a portion or action of the Cold War era.
The title you selected, “Cold War Poem,” is straightforward and felicitous. Your reference to the Bolsheviks illustrates power within the line of the stanza while adding thoughts of revolution. The Cold War was a revolutionary period post World War II where the East and West were feeling one another out. Neither willing to fully understand the other.
Brian Branigan “I pledge” (168)
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