Poem of the Day 09.04.08

people love war

they are going to end the war
with a bullhorn and a rally in washington square park,
with their hair gel and $200 jeans,
with their fidel castro hats and che guevara t-shirts.

they are going to end the war
with old bob dylan and john lennon songs that have lost their meaning,
with a bunch of memorized, spoon-fed rhetoric spouted over
import beers in a bleecker street cafe,
with the money mommy and daddy gave them this semester.

they are going to end the war
with a hapless march on washington d.c.,
with a packed school bus powered by middle eastern gas,
with an innumerable amount of like minded people
giving up their hangover saturday for peace.

they are going to end the war
they tell me as i walk washington square north,
looking for henry james’ house,
heading toward the bar on st. mark’s place
where i always end my own personal war
with beer and lost remembrances soon forgotten.

they are going to end the war by waiting it out.

for only two sets of people can end the war, really,
and one is the politicians,
but they have too much money to be made on the war to stop it.
and the other is the soldiers, grunting it out, dying,
who need only put down their guns and say we’ve had enough.

but that’ll never happen,
no matter how loud or how long
you stupid bastards shout.
because people love war.
they love it better than their families.
they love it to their soul’s bottom.
people love to see the end,
to know its always in sight.

we are trained seals for the war.
any war.
we lap it up on the nightly news,
and we strategize it over coffee in the office.

still, they say they are going to end the war
with their celluloid optimism and picket signs.

they are going to end the war,
just in time
for the next one to start,
so they can rally
the troops all over again.