POETIC JUSTICE: ANOTHER MEASURE OF SWAY

$65.8 billion will be rushed to the Pentagon so it can continue fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan through September.

Give this a grace beyond man
With the striding panther pacing in our night
Amid the screeching rodents in our dreams
With the sordid and clanging thirst in our day
Amid the weeping mothers and fathers
With the purity of softly deserving fresh jaws
Amid the calamity wrought upon innocence

Give this purity that it holds sway
With one man’s failure of another man’s country
With the shrieking shell of penniless promises
The dismal hoot of youthful warriors
And the disintegrated fingers of tiny hands

Give this fund a purpose set askew
With less for death
With less for anguish
Less for tortured reasoning
Let us have less of contempt

Use our riches to breathe hope into life
We are the victor for this
We are the better for this
Give us the words that sway the minds
Of our powers and their fluid riches
For these are the times upon the back of poetry
That will bring joy… or detonate in rage.