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Scott Kendrick: Two War Poems
Editor's Note: The following two poems were written prior to the end of the recent war in Iraq. They are reproduced here in anticipation of the next war.
No Business Like Show Business
It’s exciting,
Intoxicating -
The
spilling thrill of running battle;
Massing tanks, jet
fighters swooping,
Crouching troops, machine-gun
rattle.
The reporter breathlessly
Surveys the
scene,
Describes what’s happening
For folks at
home.
One day he’ll write of where he’s been
In
solemn, suitably reverent tones.
Twenty thousand miles
away
I’m tossing up between The Simpsons
And
the footage from a war
Our media
Are paying
for.
*****************
Freedom’s Harvest
Twelve year old girl with a dirty mess
Of
shattered bone, red flapping flesh
Hanging where a foot
was once attached;
The shock and awe of
liberation.
Democratic amputation.
Slippery piles of
stomach mixed
With bits of brain, burnt skin and blood
-
The marketplace an abattoir after flood;
The shock
and awe of liberation.
Democratic amputation.
Here’s a
head next to a leg
And there’s a body missing both
Pumping blood from gaping stumps;
The shock and awe
of liberation.
Democratic
amputation.
*******ENDS********
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