One of My Daily Poems

So ashamed, been neglecting the Blog, also discovering
comments I never responded to -- will try to do better
(tied up with lots of obligations to lotsa different
writing projects).

I still keep up about 5 or 6 poem exchanges with various
friends. Here's a recent 10-minute poem from my
back 'n forth with Jordan Rome:


Madmen rage, crazed fanatics
promised virgins in heaven
handshakes from a killer god
who loves beards, they know,
and cowed women.

Arrogant clergy preach holy suicide
to cultists dreaming of fried Americans
their sick murder-hearts
bloody the house of our lives
screaming righteousness
as the dogs of endless war
leap from their foaming lips.

Yet someday, some say,
some long, long years away,
the very word "war"
as found on aging paper
may need footnote explanation
for the children.

"You see, dear ones,
once humans tore at each other,
mindlessly, to the death,
& no one now
knows why."