Freak Flag/ Gold Star
As the nuke nations rattle their unimaginable firestorm spears,
threatening to bring liquids of human bodies bubbling on a concrete floor,
let us draw a veil.
Let us ignore the fascist dog-babble for a while.
Here,
I am walking and reading mysterious irish poems of thomas kinsella
feeling heartbeats in cool cloudy river air.
my son is with me,
we feel no fear.
In this fog of peace,as they say,
I walk along a shallow river ocean
while women work far ashore
each pressing her earnest soul
against that grinding wheel of death,
of tidal dread.
Come round at last here in this dry land of sun
contemplating how it will be to be . . . to be old,
very old,
contemplating that holy cold,
imagining the calculations over Ukraine or Iraq
over Russia
over Pakistan Aghanistan India Vietnam
over China over China over China
over Palestine
over Africa
over all borders
over all revolutions begun and crushed
and the arithmetic of bones involved.
Then, knowing with a startle that I am now returned to myself,
in joy, smiling as my son, very much here in this borderland,
laughs.
"Old man old man,"
.
and, oh, i laugh
in joy at long long last
for the borders crossed
by Bill Nevins
As the nuke nations rattle their unimaginable firestorm spears,
threatening to bring liquids of human bodies bubbling on a concrete floor,
let us draw a veil.
Let us ignore the fascist dog-babble for a while.
Here,
I am walking and reading mysterious irish poems of thomas kinsella
feeling heartbeats in cool cloudy river air.
my son is with me,
we feel no fear.
In this fog of peace,as they say,
I walk along a shallow river ocean
while women work far ashore
each pressing her earnest soul
against that grinding wheel of death,
of tidal dread.
Come round at last here in this dry land of sun
contemplating how it will be to be . . . to be old,
very old,
contemplating that holy cold,
imagining the calculations over Ukraine or Iraq
over Russia
over Pakistan Aghanistan India Vietnam
over China over China over China
over Palestine
over Africa
over all borders
over all revolutions begun and crushed
and the arithmetic of bones involved.
Then, knowing with a startle that I am now returned to myself,
in joy, smiling as my son, very much here in this borderland,
laughs.
"Old man old man,"
.
and, oh, i laugh
in joy at long long last
for the borders crossed
by Bill Nevins