A Newer Deal

As we get set to pull our troops
A decade in Afghanistan
As from Iraq where they’d been dupes
For Bush’s futile battle plan
In search of fancied weaponry,
I offer what might first sound daft
To caustic peaceniks such as me:
Agree to reinstate the draft.

It isn’t fair so few of us
Risk life and limb while in harm’s way.
Recall it wasn’t ever thus.
Once millions had a price to pay,
Draftees as well as volunteers
Unless they found a way to dodge:
Deferments lasting years and years
In grad schools where they’d safely lodge.

It’s universal service more
That now our nation also needs.
Relief groups in AmeriCorps
Perform all sorts of civic deeds
From fixing roads to cleaning streams
And helping kids to read and write,
Or when a storm attains extremes,
Assisting victims in their plight.

It’s work that mostly goes undone
And doesn’t wipe out paying jobs.
In other countries where it’s run
It’s sense of privilege that it robs
By spreading out the middle class
In both directions, depth and height,
Thus helping those deprived surpass
Their hopes, as merely is their right.