poliphilo

This poem was written six years ago during the opening phase of the war against the Taliban.

NOT IN KANSAS

Smart bombs are only as smart

As whoever it is who reads the maps.

(A sharp left here...no...right...no…left..

Oh bugger!) Is there footage somewhere-

Not to be aired for fifty years-

Of people dragging body parts

Of people whom we’re not at war with

Out of the homes we didn’t intend

To flatten? There’s a fleeting glimpse

In one of John Huston’s little films

About the battle for Italy

Of the sort of thing they’re doing now

In Afghanistan: some gentle soldiers

Ease a corpse from a sump of rubble

As if they were helping a stiff-armed granny

Get out of bed. The three star, two star,

One star generals wanted that movie

Shelved. “ The assholes,” Huston said.

And now as then the guys in charge

Are nannying us, so what we're shown

Is bits of flimsy, pretty stuff

Like big explosions and night scope footage

Of paratroops. And the night scope footage

Is emerald green. Our boys drift down

As little black dots, like spores, like seeds,

On a rocky desert as green as Oz.

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