Shock & Awe Pantoum

High up, high up.
In that land, stars splitting & curving down.
In this land, lightning breaks air into rain.
Fresh spring hoarsens the newscasters.

Tomahawk stars, bunker-busters.
The president could give a shit what we want.
Gas masks muffle the newscasters.
Cancer sprawls in the lymph of the republic.

The president‘s eyes like night raindrops.
The pepperspray can shoots off like a backfire.
Metastasized cancer.
The protester uses her long hair for a gas mask.

Tanks backfire north in the white dust.
Low down, low down.
In that land, unbound long hair of sisters.
In this land, thunder and puddle.
  


‘Shock & Awe Pantoum’ appeared in
Central Avenue issue #10, September 2003