1: War
saturation bombing
is permitted,
and no outstanding
outcry
is heard,
when death falls
(as tonnage,
as a statistic)
on
another
country
2: Charis
In the land of the foxhole
and the trench, of wasted romances,
how can any soldier find love
in a war of mired advances?
Oh comrade, consider
the Mudlands and greenless ground
where we now share this last bounty
of bread, soggy potatoes and water.
Bleeding is the rain.
The sky hangs spread like molten lead,
forks of lightning split the earth,
and death's about to fall.
So close here are They,
so pregnant with the promise of peace,
our inhibitions drop like ripened fruit.
We hug, we meld, we laugh.
3: The Goblin
the whiteness of the thing
it's Melville's whale
that boos and spooks and clangs
like death, gloriously pale
with purple mind to think
see with brown eyes beady
the flesh smell sweet and rank
of honor, proud and heavy
jug jug to bushy eyebrows
and jug to Nose of Big
slaughter the marching cows
then Goblin their graves dig
peace now is talked about
(how loud is the clatter?)
the Goblin's hungry mouth
bleeds sweet mellow water
white port, good to drink
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