war – Page 6 – poems 2 die for

PLUNGE

by all means
take
the plunge

by all means
rationalize your way clear
plunge
into bed with me

Benjamin and Joe
about to
play the
holocaust
card

cannot
help themselves
determined to
plumge us
into holiest
darkness

in the pursuit of
great principle wipe
out
tiniest speck of life

stitch us all up good
everything sewn up
good and solid

God’s great
gamma rays

like manna from
above

softly
parachuting down

and me

waiting for
birth of new universe
to have

any hope of loving you

so
here this
my

suggestion
that you
do take the plunge

FORWARD

FORWARD

push
the clocks forwards
ten thousand years

see
what happens

if nothing, the world is unchanged
the feared nuclear
apocalypse
never happened

or it did
and only

set us back
ten thousand years

A WORD

A WORD

forgiveness:
now there’s a word

the dead
do not forgive

cannot
forgive

memory is frozen
in that cold posture

in time
with time

the living
might forgive

but the maimed and
mutilated

theirs’ is a horror
beyond speech

HYMN

HYMN

Move on
move on

nothing here
cruel and unusual

play
with your mantra
sing your beads

tanks and missiles
on the Holy Mountain

so much
sand for your mandsla
here where
deepest dug in.

TEETH

TEETH

savages
cowards
animals

whirring blades blend
and then, Oh
my God; what a smoothie!

blades that whir at high speed
good for mowing, great
for a disposal unit

metaphors becoming
so displaced
cannot keep
up
with historical events

and how indeed
shall this history
be written

by tattered text of the crushed
lately bone
and ash

the lightning writing on the wall
of truth all so suddenly
lying through its teeth

FOR YOUR DISINFORMATION

for your disinformation
we have a crop of lies
harvested for consumption

which it would be
mortal sin

for you
not to believe

and as for our narrative
it is exalted in its horror

to challenge it would be
to disrespect our untruth
true to
the horror that
by law of the cosmos
must ultimately be

for your disinformation
this is it
exactly,

everything to
be
blind to

all we
in our souls
are commanded to see

ON BOARD

you made yourselves
into gods of chaos

chaos
that proceeds orderly

methodically
has lists

moves street
by street
wiping out, missing
nothing
could not be
more thorough

having learnt from
its horrific encounters
with the
demons of the past

terrible demons that
cast a monstrous forever
shadow

hook, line
and sinker

precise depths of that evil
turned
rational

taken on board

DEATH HAIKU (2.2)

DEATH HAIKU (2.2)

smoke: such a bad sign
bodies burn, dead or alive
ash in mountains piles

KILLER

KILLER

daleks and poets
it is the old antagonism

they have their bombs
and wire and goebbels-bibles

we have
our metaphors and
satire that can kill

and now we are free range
and open targets
better we genocide
them “the people” say

but
   we are sitting
           on ancient weapons,
your words
    rallying to our cause are
exposing your
bleakness
       rebelling against you

even
as you speak
(if you call it speech)

and

come to think of it

cowboys and aliens

in the sacred spot of their
crash landings

this is a juicy antagonism
turned connection

the cosmos putting this
planet to
                     strangest use
(a poem
       here
                      never
           make the news)

NOTTOKNOW

NOTOKNOW

crash the cymbals
bang the gongs
trumpet the
chosen

for they
are multitude

you are
so holy
you are
so handy

are so
holy handy

you have crucified
more souls this month
than in its entire
history

did the
little city of Rome

have slaughtered
so many
seems you
were you
to go Genghis

given permission
from
up high

and dig a hole
big enough to bury
all of us

while we all shout “hosanna”
and raise nailed
fists to the sky