Saturday, May 28, 2011

1492


God-fearing Crew

Imagine it’s 1492.  The homeland has vanished
Into the blue.  You’re hungry and thirsty, angry
With everyone else on board.  You’ve worked
The rigging for over a month as if playing chess
On a tightrope in a Barcelona wind.  By the time
You reach the Bahamas you can’t even stand up
On the beach without swaying side to side.  When
You recover from the journey, and the shy locals
Show up as naked and loving as the day of their birth,
You can’t help but want to fuck everyone in sight. 
And you do before killing them.  In between, you eat
Fruit, fish and sleep in hammocks.  You make rum
And fun and long for the broiled hams of Granada.
You’re not the Captain, not the 2nd in command: this
Bloody sex is all you’re likely to get of the enterprise.
In the end, it’s the Captain who gets the blame and fame.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Bury it and forget it

Soldier On

It’s forbidden to say they were stupid
Or to use a synonym, that they didn’t know
Our leaders were lying, that their henchman
Had conned the nation. It’s forbidden
To say they sought thrills, young men
Out to discover killing a human being,
To be in righteous battles like in movies.
You can’t say these men were thinking
About becoming heroes to their loved ones,
About getting the one-up on schoolyard
Friends when they get home, about landing
A job as security guard or a policeman
When no one else is getting any kind.
You can’t say that they killed foreign kids
And women, blew families away just for
Vanity.  You can’t even say however one’s
Tempted country right or wrong was the idea.
Only families can say that, which is why
I told my brother just bury it somewhere
And try to forget she ever happened.