Powers on chessboards, on a roll of dice,
\nMass and unmask in great Darwin\u2019s name.
\nWar-whoops go up and towers collapse,
\nReaping the whirlwind, riding our shame.<\/p>\n
Wave the flag prettily, \u201cunited we stand\u201d\u2014
\nAgainst what?\u00a0 For whose good?\u00a0 Against evil?
\nIn whose heart?\u2014while the military band
\nPlays anthems to march to, to die and to kill.<\/p>\n
Roman and Vandal, Roman and Hun, the great
\nEmpires rise and fall like waves\u2014crash, and are gone.
\nOut of the rubble: a Ming vase, the pleat
\nOf a Frans Hals\u2019 complacent nobleman.<\/p>\n
Small, ordinary ceremonies go,
\nReplaced by pageants, the collective embrace,
\nThe folding into\u2026. The obliterating guns go
\nThrough the greenhouse of reason\u2014God\u2019s last grace.<\/p>\n
Surely, we\u2019re chosen; God\u2019s on our side; God\u2019s
\nLaying bets on us; sending his squadrons!
\nOur leaders will save us (against all the odds,
\nSince they got us into these titanic cauldrons).<\/p>\n
We\u2019re marching and singing with gas in our lungs.
\nJust like a movie\u2014so we know it\u2019s not real.
\nBut a severed hand lies there with two rings
\nFrom a lover\u2014and the surreal smell is real\u2026.<\/p>\n
Down the long corridors of progress, the gnaw
\nOf rats deluges; crocodile tears fill the eyes
\nOf the entrusted.\u00a0 The Law changes; Law,
\nAfter all, is supple, full of mysteries.<\/p>\n
And perfidies!\u00a0 So Liberty\u2019s eagle
\nEyes are closed, the iron heel comes down, breaks
\nStripling necks, and we cry, \u201cCollateral
\nDamage\u201d on both sides, blink, and raise the stakes.<\/p>\n
The sky-gods come, ripping babes from gouged wounds,
\nFruit from gored fields; the four horsemen come,
\nSwinging lariats of skulls over ravaged tombs
\nWhere prophets lie.\u00a0 Who\u2019s home now?\u00a0 Whose home?<\/p>\n
Smoke\u2026. The dream of one world family\u2026. Ash\u2026.
\nSteel girders twisted into a hand pointing
\nAt a sky too vast to share\u2026. At last: ash\u2026
\nSmoke\u2026 dreams crushed in eyes\u2026 crying\u2026 burying\u2026.
\n__________________________________<\/p>\n