What doesnt this poem mean to you?

Question

Homework by Allen Ginsberg
Homage Kenneth Koch


If I were doing my Laundry I'd wash my dirty Iran
I'd throw in my United States, and pour on the Ivory Soap,
scrub up Africa, put all the birds and elephants back in
the jungle,
I'd wash the Amazon river and clean the oily Carib & Gulf of Mexico,
Rub that smog off the North Pole, wipe up all the pipelines in Alaska,
Rub a dub dub for Rocky Flats and Los Alamos, Flush that sparkly
Cesium out of Love Canal
Rinse down the Acid Rain over the Parthenon & Sphinx, Drain the Sludge
out of the Mediterranean basin & make it azure again,
Put some blueing back into the sky over the Rhine, bleach the little
Clouds so snow return white as snow,
Cleanse the Hudson Thames & Neckar, Drain the Suds out of Lake Erie
Then I'd throw big Asia in one giant Load & wash out the blood &
Agent Orange,
Dump the whole mess of Russia and China in the wringer, squeeze out
the tattletail Gray of U.S. Central American police state,
& put the planet in the drier & let it sit 20 minutes or an
Aeon till it came out clean

Additional Details

as it says at the top i didnt write this i just want to know if others see wat i see in it for a class i have
thank you

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

It is someone who is making a list of all the things that are polluted and dirty in the world and using the metaphor of a washday to describe how he would like to clean it all up.

Answer 2

Although some might agree with it, a lot of people would be very sensitive to this poem. It's a pertinent wake-up call, but really harsh. I would keep it but not publish it. To me it doesn't mean peace, only radical opinions by whoever wrote it (they must have been really fed up while writing this).