Q LEVEL CLEARANCE

A Poem for Your Eyes Only

A Q Level Clearance is for certain employees
of the Department of Energy. The poet knows this
as he worked in the intelligence community for five years. 

This is not as exciting as it sounds and seemingly
every other person you pass on the street is or was
a member of the intelligence community. 

Some workers in this community murder West Point ethicists
and make it look like a suicide
and others work in the mail room. 

The poet was somewhere between these two workers.

Anyone with internet access can look up Q Level Clearance
to find out what it is and isn’t. Although, it’s harder
and ridiculous to prove what things aren’t.

Certain people will make false claims then say
Do your research. They will be disappointed to learn
a Q Level Clearance isn’t cloning alien-human hybrid babies
and storing them under the Denver International Airport.

They often tell you this in ALL CAPS.

There are more truths in this poem than in all of the Bible. 
For instance, forgiveness is nice when appropriate
and doesn’t retraumatize a victim. Other times, 

fuck forgiveness.

Work on better boundaries
and if a person asks forgiveness for their trespasses 
you and you alone may choose whether or not to forgive.

The poet hopes that he has earned forgiveness
from the people he has harmed. The poet does not
have any expectations of forgiveness. 

A Q Clearance does not earn one forgiveness. 

Jason O’Toole is Poet Laureate Emeritus of North Andover, MA. He serves on the advisory board of the New England Poetry Club. He is the recipient of the 2025 Amy Lowell Prize and this year’s judge. The Strange Misgivings of the Sadly Gifted (Dead Man’s Press Ink) is his third full length collection.

Photos are from the O’Toole family collection: FBI Special Agent John “Jack O’Toole (in Stetson) with unidentified person on left; Jefferson and Washington Monuments, late 1960s when dad was interviewing at the Company.