“Strange Leaf” is a piece of poetry about multiple subjects. The largest topics addressed are the intelligence community and the various three-letter agencies, such as the CIA, FBI, NSA, DOD, CSS, DNI, and DHS.
All of the terminology used in this piece comes directly from historical examples of real-life spies and intelligence officers from US agencies, as well as the Brits, Germans, and French.
If you search any of the terms you hear in this poem and add the words “spy terms,” you’ll gain a much deeper insight into what I was getting at in the piece.
I wrote this poem sometime during 2020, leading up to the election. Not long after that, I recorded it as spoken word and set it to background music.
After January 6th, 2021, and the assault on the Capitol Building, I compiled a montage of photographs of events from the history of the United States that depict the famous and infamous acts of our three-letter organizations, alongside pictures of world conflicts and the recent madness inflicted upon America by the cult of MAGA.
I had shared the video here once before. However, it didn’t receive as many views as I had hoped for, and today, “Strange Leaf” is more relevant than ever.
One of the (much smaller) minor themes in this work is tobacco’s role in American culture, hence the title, “Strange Leaf.”
My family farmed tobacco and other crops for decades before they eventually moved away from farming. In the 1990s, I assisted my father in tearing down three tobacco-drying barns he had helped his father build as a young man.
America’s history is based on crops like tobacco, which were raised and harvested by slaves and indentured white servants. Some of my ancestors were indentured servants.
In spy circles, sharing a cigarette or a pipe was a regular method of “developing an asset.” The daily routine of “stepping out back for a smoke” offered the perfect opportunity to have a private conversation with someone and find out about them, learn their true allegiances, and ascertain their weaknesses for potential exploitation.
Today, intelligence officers’ methods have changed, both in the field and in the analyst round-rooms at Langley. The terms they use for keeping secrecy have evolved to keep pace with changing times and environments.
However, the basic principles of spy work, known as tradecraft, are the same. The basic premise is that there are always governments ruling over citizens.
Every government on Earth has an intelligence agency comprising many data collectors, data analysts, and field agents.
The size of the nation in question is of little concern. For example, Israeli intelligence is Mossad, and that is one of the most elaborate, effective, and widespread groups on the planet.
We see how Israel is currently acting with impunity against Palestine. Their success is directly attributable to Mossad’s efficiency.
We now live in a post-Patriot Act world where everything is monitored, recorded, and tightly controlled. Understanding the history of our intelligence community and how it operates today has never been more critical.
For anyone who is interested in the print version of this poem, I published it in my book remission, available on Amazon.
Kevin Trent Boswell 