Janet Buck

Red Eyes


The elocution of torn rags,

petty squabbles over land,

loaded rifles, tracks of tanks

like asteroids gone crazy

in this hemisphere

brought us to this tired fork --

where buses could be

bombs on wheels, where roads lead

straight from fence to fence.

Pitch, the darkness is pitch,

an unrelenting form of tar.

Somewhere in Afghanistan

a sea of children starves for milk,

considers rice and school books

the caviar of silk elite.

The color of communion wine

wasted in stampeding terror.


We're all still red around the rim,

remembering the choice-less ash,

scores of lambs and skeletons

that had no proper funeral.

To let the bed sore sorrow heal

presumes forgetting horror

that will never lift.

Hartshorn tears and lurid scars

spread like restless spirits now.

Somewhere near the Pentagon

another autumn rolls its mulch.

Tawny leaves are clinging

to their guarded green.

Somewhere in the foggy Bronx,

a widow and a widower

toss one toothbrush in the trash.



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