WAR ABSORBS AMERICA

In Iraq I saw a paranoid country
in a bombardment of dynamite –
in America I saw worse…
rotten guts of idlers spooned out in the meadows,
blinding mechanized light streaming from rotten cottages,
primly laden straw,
mucked grass blades,
brown on the ground,
drooping ectoplasm from gutters,
white excrement pouring from springs and into the streams,
trespassers cackling at loose guinea birds and peacocks,
hideous night howl alarm clocks
pounding the brain temple,
nightmare sounds fixing the bike,
stripped trees in the dead of Spring,
black Spring in the dead of Summer,
in the capitol moss grows out of golden fronds
on the Washington Monument.

To the north Baltimore quakes and black bums
croak and bark in frigid markets.
Squeals reach the top of MBNA bank
and reflect jubilee emeralds.
The commuters swallow them like candy.
In Jacksonville cars whorl on rhombus highways
taking fragile souls and in a glance-instant
volcanoes spring from the bay, tidal pools dry,
dispersing millions of insects.
Still the traffic flows.
The residents wake up under buffet tables
wondering about their dead creaking soul juice
splattered on the sidewalks
recycled by the earth.