INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Chris Lord
Joseph McNair
Karyn M. Wolven
Geoffrey Philp
Paul B. Roth
Duane Locke
Silvia Scheibli
Shutta Crum
Felino Soriano
Steve Beaulieu
Donald Hewlett
Alan Britt
Joanie Freeman
Mervyn M. Solomon
Jerry Blanton
Marilyn Churchill
Running Cub
Mukul Dahal
Alice Paris
Helen Losse
Fred Wolven

EYE RACK

Political poems
remind us
of a crime
sometimes
hidden reason
minus rhyme
They got nothing to do but to kill us
it was
we
who pulled
them
from the rubbled heap
that we prepared
to proclaim
nation building time
reason minus rhyme.
Without warning
pipelines blow up
oil does not flow
no ports to enter
nor roads to tread
RK said
you've marked them
with the dead
Up your rhyme filled reason
defiant Sadar said
you met my guns
i met yours
bombs
planes
booby traps
museums flattened
palaces secured
life restored
sans water and sans light
every day and every night
like RK
you thought it best
In patience to abide
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride
in the evening
i like to hear
the children
play
Eye Rack
Eye Rack
can't see
what he get
he will get
abusing
the women of Sadar
terrifying
Sadar's children
spurning the faith
that they hold sacred
to their fathers'
manhood
under siege
Ooo ooo ooo
what a little
collateral damage
can do
Eye Rack
Eye Rack
Cock adoodle doo
i will build you a nation
in which guards
will guard the guards
for Rodney's sake
can we all get along
with hearts and minds together
divining MB's life of the world, of man, of human persons, of you and of me
take back your hearts and minds
restore them to their birthing place
they agreed.
Sanctify no more
the bullet
or the bomb
the body
in the bomb
from the deepest depths
to the highest heights
they looked down
they looked up
and it was good.


notes:
RK (Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden)
MB (Martin Buber, I and Thou)




Mervyn M. Solomon, Miami