WINGS
July -
and it's always been winter.
Thoughts fly
to a sun scorched land of blinding
sand storms.
The war is over now
the war has just begun
the war will never end although
it did for Private Bertoldie. The boy soldier
from Independence in Kansas State
will never now be a marine biologist - water wings untested.
And little Ali*
has he grown wings where his arms used to be?
and all the other little Alis?
see now
how their broken wings flutter
drifting drifting falling melting
snowflakes
in Hell
*ali in Italian - wings
two
NEWS FLASH
Hundreds of United States soldiers stricken by mysterious illness
Where are you Bob Dylan?
depleted uranium blowin' in the wind?
three
OIL
Fear stalks the destroyed land
its faces multitudinous
Liberators and liberated alike
tremble
a rifle butt on a door
a land mine
in an empty coke container
dysentery
cholera
cancer
crackle of rifle shots
in an orange grove at midnight
as a distraught father carries out the order
to execute his informer son
the bring them home now brigade
frantic strident vociferous
and over the roiling waters
a thick dark cloud
spreading
encompassing all
© Venie Holmgren
aug 3, 2003