Friday, February 09, 2007

Communique

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 France, in England,

They are killing turkeys, chickens, all because

An exotic dancer flown in from viral Asia

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 Mexico,

Only money is free these days, and we,

They say, have only nuts!

III.

I see Otis Redding, weeping

By the waters of Babylon.

Leonard Cohen is back,

Sings about the Rose who gave him head,

I love his Montreal whine.

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 Iraq has gone to shit.

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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