Daily Archives: September 4, 2011

Ten Years

You  are going to make it
whatever you need it
to be:

fireballs for patriotism,
two fingers raised on high
before folding,
heroes and victims and flags
and lies, dust,
gold salvaged for tacky coins,
bones, parts, mysteries, 
excuses for more and more
of the same, souvenirs,
graveyard tourism, shining
city in a hole, just another day,
a beautiful early fall day, 
no clouds, warm enough,
a promise of a good fall,
feeling special, all the world
a stage for the next delicious act, then
sandbags cut loose, damn, 
it’s a damn horror flick, must be,
let’s rewrite the script, let’s 
animate it, 3-D it, make it
part of your movie —

oh, for a bit of rest.
For a pillow, a clean pillow,
and a night not bugged 
by listeners. A night that turns into
a good morning, a start to a lifetime
where nothing ever happens again
and days follow nights
that contain nothing but sheep
and sleep and waking up
in familiar arms.

 


Fathers And Sons

We fear
the haunted baggage
under their eyes,
their hands
nervous on probable weapons
in their pockets.

How crisply they turn
at the slightest sound behind them
to survey the room
with an apparently random glance.

Is there any hope
for these dented sons
of warriors?

This is my father’s house,
they say,
and my father’s fortress,
and all of you are enemies
until my father’s wisdom
proves otherwise.

We knew their fathers well,
too well perhaps
to trust the sons.  Our fathers
taught us how to read
between the lines
on their faces,
after all.