The Sand Hill Review            http://www.sandhillreview.org        2001 November

 

To Our Enemies

 

This is no poem that knows if

armies must do what they do,

but after bombs have fallen,

in the time of brickdust rising,

of looking out as a mole would, with eyes

too small to take in the lighted world;

the time of sirens and moaning, of desperate

searches, of an anger that would lift everything

and put it back into place if anyone

could harness its force--

is this when peace begins?

 

We hope so.

We donšt want to die, too.

Because we are able to point

to what should be saved, and what destroyed,

we have done this.

No one is grateful.

 

This is a poem that wants to say 'love',

but here in Casino America, where the time

is always the same  (outside, heat or rain,

starlight or smoke--who knows?)

all we have are mirrors and money

and a belief in honoring

urges.  Nobody wants to get old.

We who are made of wanting,

how can we love what we see in the mirrors?

How can we love you?

 

Charlotte Muse