WHY?
why beat the shit
out of them?
surely
with your massive
military industrial complex
your have
more refined, tech-
savvy solutions
or because
since universities began
in medieval Arabia
and Europe must
you go dark
ages on them
besiege these encampments
like you are Temujin’s
horde
ransacking for forage
throwing defenders
down the battlements
all to
show and
tell lesson them
how Plato’s children
and great grandchildren
should scholastically behave
SUSQUEHANNA 2
there are ghosts
in your country
I saw them dancing
in the mist all
along the Susquehanna
one cold January morning
just after 9/11
a couple of miles upstream
from Three Mile Island
and we were talking Civil War mlilitary,
myself and this kindly
African American
Professor of Sociology from
Harrisburg Penn State
him detailing how the Federals and Confederates
were criss-
crossing this territory
playing this cat and
mouse game
only to crash headlong into
each other at a
place called Gettysburg
of course neither of us
back in 2002 could have imagined
twenty so years on this
land would
find itself of the brink of
such a division
where the spectre of such
horror looming again
and those precious
twenty or so days
my sole experience
of America
of breathing the air of
its liberty, if
such is your belief
something the ghosts
trying to tell me, their
cold touch
alerting me
a new world and
forever graveyard
tension
in the spirit world
it seems far-fetched to bridge
the river
with its
Native American name
flowing with the forever
waters of such secrets
leaving
the old lies, the old lies
to spread, make
good trade,
do good business
what ripples outward here I fear
ultimately chain
in its reaction
PANIC LITE.
moral panic
Janet!
something in your pants
something wriggling
in your panties
threatening every
aspect of your identity
have to go
airtight, watertight
totally clamp down
if no one can
breathe
how do you hope
to
however can
you expect to
guide the world
to the light
(nothing we fear
more than your light)
****
moral
panic, Janet!
let’s not forget
those who began it
COLUMBINE
we came across
a fallen city
at its heart
there was
a labyrinth
and at
the heart of this
labyrinth
there was a demon
very little of
this culture,
this society remains
not enough to
give a reasonable
picture of
what they were like
the people
who lived here
except we are
pretty sure
we can infer
they were
extremely militaristic
and, perhaps
in the fear that
the shadow of
their conquests
engendered
conducted
savage sacrifices
of the youth
who perhaps tried
in vain to suggest
more peaceful ways
TAKE
take the money
take our words
push us into
madness we
have no say it
want no
part of
still have no
coherent argument
how and why
we are here at all
CHILI FRIES
went to the drive
through at
the fast food
outlet
came away
with a couple of
presidential candidates
and a load
of chili fries
the candidates
were not
up to much
looked nothing
like as advertised
but the fries were
piquant
and were not
crawling
with grotesque lies
poems 2 die for