The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Tue 3/6/2007)

[RetroLounge]

The Wars

How can I tell you of the terrible cries
Never sounded, of the nerves that fail,
Not in jungle warfare or a southern jail,
But in some botched affair where two people sit
Quite calmly under a blood-red lamp
In a Chinese restaurant, a ludicrous swamp
Of affection, fear drowning in the amber
Tea when no word comes to mind
To stand for the blood already spilled,
For rejection, denial, for all those years
Of damage done in the polite wars?

And what do I know of the terrible cries
That are really sounded on the real hill
Where the soldiers sweat in the Asian night
And the Asians sweat where the soldiers flail
The murderous grass, and the peasants reel
Back in a rain of gasoline,
And the shells come home and the bombs come down
Quite calmly under a blood-red moon
Not far from China, and the young are killed,
Mere numerals in the casualties
Of this year's war, and the war of years?

He stands with a knife in the Daily News.
They are snaking their way into the hills.
She is walking up Broadway to hurt again.
They are fleeing under a hail of shells.
He is taking her neck into his hands.
A human seed squats in the dark.
She is scalding the baby in the bath.
He feels the bullet enter his skin.
She spits in the face of the riot squad.
They are sitting down, they are opening wounds.

Howard Moss

****************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[Droopy]

1. That is intense!

Good pick, RetroLounge.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear Retro........

Love as war?

That's the metaphor that comes to me today....

How painful this one is!

And beautiful, all at once ........

Thank you...:hug:

[wildhorses]

3. i wonder if this is what god sees when he looks down upon

the earth
i wonder really what is the worth
i wonder why we bother, fight and cry
i wonder why it is we even try

i wonder if love really is a big enough house for all the pain
or is it just words to a song i heard on the radio
coming home in the rain