day FIVE HUNDRED and SEVEN

                             Wonder Bread, Chipped Ham, Tastycakes

it’s not a real road
until you see a front-end loader
pulled over, horse collared
at the roadside by a cop car
right near the ass
of a wal-mart

I honestly forgot
It was memorial day
until I hit the hill
the cemetery stretching
up festooned in hundreds
of flags, if there was a grave
to honor, you couldn’t find
it in the wind here

in town the football players
are walking to their cars
token flags and shoulder pads

this town was a stop
on the underground railroad
the supermarket has specials
on wonder bread, chipped ham
and tastycakes. the food truck
serves funnel cake and sno-cones

the veterans are hanging
from light posts, the bunting
in the windows, we only give
lip service to our wars, maybe no
one needs to know what a just war is
maybe we don’t want to look that close

if we cared more maybe
the pizza shop on 4th wouldn’t
have closed so long ago
that the weeds are up to the window

if we cared more we’d
all have two busted ass trans-ams
parked in the middle of our manicured lawn
maybe if we cared more
we could afford one of those
ranch houses on utopia street

instead we all run for the hills
the parade healed us
in that same elemental way
as a sunday church service
we take away our lies
our misconceptions that we swear
we’re right about
hold them close
to our hearts
while we wait weeks
for the rain to wash away
the piles of horse shit
that were left
by the corner of walnut street

--Jason Baldinger