Tag Archives: War

BACH IN IRAQ

BACH IN IRAQ

I should have seen it coming

All the songs are machine guns now

It is not so far from rock, to rap

to rat-a-tat-tat

the beats getting harder and harder

and closer and closer together

Sitting at an Austin stop sign

cars filled with soldiers on each side

In a cross-fire of decibels, I think

“No one is playing Bach in Iraq”

as all three cars shudder and shake

I lift my hands in surrender

they keep firing

ON THE OTHER HAND

ON THE OTHER HAND

In Haifa
we visited a home
with original paintings by Chagall
(You know how he can always
make you feel like you can fly)
and a bomb shelter
under the stairs

Stopped at a wall by a bus stop
with one stone for each child
killed in the explosion

And looked down on the harbor
across the order the beauty
of the gardens of the Bahai

Looked out across the water
to Lebanon where the last
rockets flew

CHENEY’S BAD DAY

CHENEY’S BAD DAY

Dick Cheney
just had the worst day of his life
he said so himself

The worst day in Dick Cheney’s life
was not the day John F. Kennedy died
or Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King

The worst day in Dick Cheney’s life
was not one of the many when he learned
that dozens of the young and brave
he had helped send to Iraq
were not coming back

The worst day in Dick Cheney’s life
was not even 9/11

The worst day in Dick Cheney’s life
was hunting quail in Texas
after a beer or two

The worst day in Dick Cheney’s life
was when he pulled the trigger
and saw a man actually fall
saw a man actually bleed

A bad day for Dick Cheney
may be a good day for the world