Wednesday, September 04, 2013

What's Real? A Poem About War.


WHAT'S REAL?


Pictured between reruns
and what commercials want to sell,
explodes another war
in some far place
          that I can't spell.

To me,
war appears as broken bodies
burning buildings
and smoking gas,
interrupted by auto salesmen,
frosty colas
          and kitchen wax.

Every evening
around dinner
devastation
is served up with my meal,
then sprinkled with laughs and laundry powder.
Can you tell me
          which pictures are real?


©1997 sara holbrook
Am I Naturally This Crazy?

Boyds Mills Press


Although the copyright on this poem is 1997, my database of poems tells me that I wrote it in April, 1991.  A different war. Or is it?  War is always unfair.  How would more bombs help this little boy? His family?

The book this first appeared in, Am I Naturally this Crazy, is out of print.  How I wish we could make pain and chaos that is war go away as easily.

1 comment:

Charles Waters said...

A timeless poem for an unfortunately timeless subject. Same for "War is the Fiercest Art."