FRIENDLY FIRE
When Cheney pulls the trigger
it’s likely as not
that a partner not a bird gets shot
In Afghanistan allies tremble to a man
so much power – so little plan
Killing Canadians from Strathcona
and Cardinals from Arizona
And how many Iraqis now have died
who might really have been on our side
IN SEARCH OF
Cave ab homine unius libri
(beware the man of one book)
Within us and without
there are a million libraries
Do not be too concerned
with departments of homeland insecurities
There are always those
who will know what you have been reading
BUFFALO SOLDIERS
Buffalo soldiers, buffalo soldiers
on call once more
Buffalo soldiers, buffalo soldiers
fighting the white man’s war
First you killed the red man
then the yellow, now the brown
So everything stays nice and safe
in our white man’s town
But this is America and
when you come back
When you come back
in a plane or a sack
When you come back
you’ll still be black
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
Don’t worry boys and girls
your good friends will be back
to send you off to Iran
if you were too young for Iraq
EVERY FOURTH BULLET
Seeing as how we are shooting
at each other anyway
why not use tracers
we will at least seem connected
CHECKPOINT
The Marine Sergeant said
We put up our hands for them to stop
If they kept going we just lit them up
Our patrol killed thirty or forty civilians
in one forty eight hour period
Later I learned that a hand in the air like that
is just a sign for hello in Iraq
I never want to go back
BODY COUNT
The trouble is
you can only count the bodies that count
Afghani and Iraqi soldiers and citizens
have already paid ten times 911
but it doesn’t seem to help
If it’s only American lives that count
then it’s only American deaths that count
So if one dead hero cancels one dead victim
let’s give some thanks this Thanksgiving
we’re more than half way there
NOVEMBER 11, 2004
It is Remembrance Day in Canada
Veterans Day in the good old USA
I am working from the house
faxes come in and faxes go out
People write me nice letters and send
beautiful pictures through the computer
I say “I love technology”
And then I remember
In Fallujah today
people in tanks as big as trains
are pushing pretty red buttons
and blowing out real people’s brains
BUSH CONTROL
Here’s one for your southern values y’all
if you can’t manage to abstain
try early withdrawal
IRAQ AND BACK
Your innocent children they took away
returning now as corpses or as killers
and you now learning how little
the difference between the two