war is at hand
photoshop collage
by RubDMC
War
by Ted Lardner
Ratio of Americans killed by lightning since January 2002
to those killed by terrorism: 3:2.
-- Harper's Index
The war on lightning
on thunder mudslides seismic disturbances
volcanic activities blind thrust fault slippage
on siroccos virga santa anna
cyclonic and anti cyclonic
wind.
Entering his 17th term
the President announced
new security measures.
"We are instruments of God,"
the President by top aids
is said to have murmured.
Groups of Republican donors
continue to work, removing the worms
around the clock
from the President's eyes.
The war on rain.
The war on night morning fog stillness.
The war on the hush that descends,
the teeth of frost.
The war on hail straight-line wind micro-bursts
sun spots magnetic disruption the earth's
gravitational wobble.
The war on pressure systems air masses ridges and troughs.
The war on leaves.
The war on fog.
The war on hoarfrost spring and Indian summer.
The war on permafrost duff loess and loam.
The war on cirrus nimbus stratus and popcorn clouds.
The war on meteors showering the White House
lawns with reflected light.
The war on unregulated light refracted through un-navigable water.
The war on tides floods seeps cricks swells rollers rapids bores flats pools
eddies of all vortices.
The war on moon gravity menstruation estrus.
The war on heat lightning seasonal heating heat sinks heat rising.
The war on ball lightning sheet lightning black ice of all colors granulations densities.
The war on dirt dust soil mud clay ooze mire slime slicks and sludges.
The war on electricity any form or use thereof.
The war on smoky mountain valley chlorophyll change in leaf coloration
of eastern deciduous forests.
The war on lightning.
The war on sleet.
The war on the 18th term of snow.
The war on the 19th election of tropical mist.
The war on woods.
The war on foxfire.
The President
from his wheelbarrow
announced today the last fireflies
held as enemy combatants
at Guantanamo have died.
The war on birds.
The war on migration.
The war on lice sea worms intestinal bacteria anaerobic microbes in sea vents.
The war on wind.
The war on shadows carving any landscape into livable moments.
The war on prairie.
The war on wind.
The war on clouds.
The war on rain.
The war on.
source
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This diary is different
by RubDMC
This diary is different.
Perhaps that's inevitable.
I've looked for and looked at images of this war,
read poems about death and war,
and tried to make sense from pictures and words.
War is sadness and grief.
Beyond glory or righteousness there is inconsolable loss.
I've tried to meditate upon it.
But now this poem and these images and this diary.
I feel hot, blind, simple anger.
It is emptiness and unrewarding hollow.
I feel guilty:
guilty that the image in this diary shows
PhotoShop makes hijacking the work of others too easy;
guilty that this self-conscious text shows I've glimpsed some poets' ideas
but have earned none of their right;
and guilty that all of my looking and reading and thinking and feeling is luxury
and nothing to the pain of experience.
Sadness, grief, anger, guilt - are these, too, inevitable?
Such feelings must have their reason,
maybe as small wounds to nudge me.
witness every day