Don’t you fear
that the battle we’re waging
is lost already?  
Already the sky’s red
with our cities burning,
with tearing rockets unstitching the night.  
Already the sea is lost
and the earth is awash
in spilled oil and blood;
already we’ve all lost good sense,
can’t explain why we’re still fighting,
other than to say we must
if only to keep
from slaying ourselves
in despair.  

And yet we stand
armed and ready,
armed to the teeth
on behalf of what will not return;

and yet we are here,
frontline desperate,
rear guard
desperate,
hands slippery,
feet horned and howling,
guts open to the fire.  

Here we are.  We still
fight, fall in love, fight,
bear children, fight, fight,
sling our fists balled up against
the incoming, sing, fight,
keep a bulletproof coat of colors
on the back door for going out,
wear it out to fight, say
we look good, look like warriors,
the cause is lost but now we’re found
in the war, the war, we’re here
for the war, we’re here,
here in certain harm’s way,
here, regardless of the urge
to give up, raising children 
not to give up even though
the war’s lost
and we have nowhere
now to be.  

this drink’s
cold enough
for the thirst I have now

but in an hour?
will it be cold enough
for the thirst I know will grow
the more I drink?

it’s like my hunger
that gets quiet on crackers
now 
but will holler like a stevedore
in the night
awakening me
demanding entire cows — 

the more easily I’m satisfied now
the less satisfiable
I’ll be
later