Communique
I.
So many wars, fought simultaneously,
Every animal on high alert, impossible
To know which war will catch you up
Or cast you out like a flounder flapping,
You, I, we were looking the wrong way
Because of eye placement, friends
Disappear and others struggle back
To the shifting surfaces, battleground –
Welcome home, poet of detox!
I thought an enemy machine gun
Shot you full of holes and left us
Bereft of spinning mantras – Salud!
II.
Of course, I am terrified. In
They are killing turkeys, chickens, all because
An exotic dancer flown in from viral
Had a night with the cock of the flock –
I see birds everywhere! The sparrow knocking
At my window chirps about failed supplies
Of sunflower seed, suet, after all these years,
She says, you abandon me! Ficklehood!
Gray squirrels conspire as they race, branch
To branch, whisper about global warming,
They say that humans are destroying habitat,
See, they say, humans are killing birds,
Expelling migrants, building airports where
Monarchs rested on their way to
Only money is free these days, and we,
They say, have only nuts!
III.
I see Otis Redding, weeping
By the waters of
Leonard Cohen is back,
Sings about the Rose who gave him head,
I love his
And Durgananda is once more Sally,
I get messages from her assistant,
You can be less of an asshole
If you learn to meditate.
IV.
I don’t know if you’ve been reading
The papers but
Corpses are piled on all sides, no one
Wins this war except the profiteers
(had to dig that word out of century-
Old pamphlets).
Most everyone would prefer
The war to end, but there is
No urgency in this discomfort.
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