Before I'd name the war, I'd ask to know
What I was calling "in" and calling "out",
And how this situation's like to grow.
It's clarity we've too long been without.
New York, Afghanistan, Madrid, Iraq,
Guantanamo and London, Bali too;
Iran and North Korea, from the talk,
And then Peoria? and me? and you?
We move in darkness, as it seems to me
Not of fear ( Read more... )

In time, September the eleventh night,
The kids will watch the rockets fill the air.
They'll OOH and AAH in multicoloured light
With bioluminescents in their hair.
Our tragedies will be reduced to rhyme
Some half-remembered, mistranslated song
And jumping dances, meaningless through time,
Details missing, names and places wrong.
Though self-renewing terror ( Read more... )

I
We start with God (or Gods, or none)
Then speech and press, assembling:
The ways and means that anyone
Can ask for change to anything.

II
But might makes right, or helps it thrive
Against the worst ill wishers.
So guns can keep the State alive
In well-regulated Militias.

III
The homely castle where you live
Affords no soldier boarder.
The third amendment lets ( Read more... )