Poems of World War III
Charles Levenstein




The News Song

No longer read the newspapers,
Make the news:

No longer write the poems,
Make the life:

No longer make the breakfast,
Be the food:

The war was not the war
    They said it was for,
Perhaps they were misinformed
    Or it was for some other four
    Reasons, good or bad,
Most likely not on a moral scale,
    Like cats smelling each other
    Or whales sieving plankton.

This war of wrong reasons,
    Or of no reasons at all,
    Simply in the nature of things,
Was victorious, reportedly, however,
    Perhaps is not quite over
    Since casualties mount
And not just among defenders
    Of museums and oil fields
But everyday in random villages
A few young Americans or Brits, no
Others from the coalition
Of the willing, like Poles
That I can remember. No word
    Of Halliburton or Bechtel
Casualties.
A few Iraqis of course.

Meanwhile, the reports from Kabul
    Are gunshots, bizarre warlords
    And Empire troops go at it
In shifting mountains of alliance
    And misalliance, plate
    Tectonics sending one up, one down.
Doesn't someone actually want
    To build a pipeline to move
    Something or other from there

To places where serious money can be made?

No longer read the newspapers,
Make the news.

No longer write the poems,
Make the life.

No longer make the breakfast,
Be the food.



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