What Godwin Missed

Your opinion seemed right to you
and then
shit started. Soon,
it happened:

Nazi,
says the anonymous poster,
you’re a
Nazi
for suggesting such a thing.

By now, you’ve forgotten what you actually said.

Nazi,
you respond,
you’re the
Nazi
for bringing
Nazis
into this.  Trying to scare me
into shutting up by invoking
Nazis,
that’s a
Nazi
thing to do.

Nazi Nazi!
chimes in a
supporter of your enemy
(and what was this about again?)

Nazi! Nazi Nazi Nazi!
NAZI!

Damn, but it feels good
to bring them up in connection
with anything at all —
baseball card futures, Area 51,
that Palin woman, hairstyles,
the latest incarnation of garage rock.

Damn, it feels good
to hear that marching
in the world outside.
Almost like your blood
demands it from you.
Almost like it doesn’t matter
where you were headed
as long as you eventually
get to a point

where that word can roll off your outstretched fingers.