Do You Know Me? by Michael Ceraolo

Do You Know Me?

A century later that question was the tagline

for a credit-card company's commercial

touting the advantages of their card

to stamp one with the mark of distinction

I did not have such a card,

but I was the unanimous choice

of the seventeen Union state governors

to speak that day at Gettysburg

 Newspaper coverage of the ceremony

talked more of my speech than the other one

I spoke for two hours, as was the custom

for political oratory at the time

Yet I did less in speaking for two hours

that he did in speaking for two minutes,

and demonstrated at least one instance

where two hundred seventy-two is greater than thirteen thousand

You can judge history's verdict for yourself:

my speech is widely available online

Do you know me?

My name is Edward Everett

Bio:  "Michael Ceraolo is a retired firefighter/paramedic and active poet who has had one full-length book (Euclid Creek, from Deep Cleveland Press) and a few chapbooks published (among the chapbooks is Cleveland Haiku, from Green Panda Press). He has a second full-length book, Euclid Creek Book Two, forthcoming from unbound content press, and is continually working on new and existing poetry projects."