1 minute read
Libertree
from Between Souls
Libertree
The tree of liberty devours the loyal Grinding them between burning flag teeth and a ton of open doors. Blue lakes formed in the footprints of Babe While the trail of tears formed a bloody river.
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Washington had a thing for breaking cherry trees and raising hemp That was good for strong ropes to bind us all together In a frenetic world of neckties and necessities.
No one knows the names of Afghan heroes or Hmong veterans Whose fathers raised opium crops now littered with landmines.
Few can tell you where Russia is, even after fifty years Of cold wars in tropical nations they “never vacationed in, personally.” They would be unable totell you how many of our allies are In an impossible debt, negotiating a cost-effective betrayal. But they can tell you about "Friends" and Miss October.
Miscellaneous documents outlining Illiterate farmers with $200 anti-tank weapons Have surfaced to air our missile mania, A culture where no one sees the irony Of naming a million-dollar cruise missile After a tomahawk, while defanged reservations cope With under-funded schools.
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People laugh as immigrants report stories of American giants Who press you beneath their green thumbs stained with dollars When it's time to eat.
Cannibalized ideas and epics lay exhausted, scattered apple-seeds In urban canyons formed by alien policies of war and leverage. And a great love of sequels. Half of the nation has never seen an orchard, Only the recycled city papers They are being ignored in as usual.
Somehow, the Cubans managed to preserve The purity of baseball and cigars While we still can't imagine the rules to Canadian curling, Despite our open borders.
And strangely, when a laughing yellow cab driver Who was a former engineer from Iraq tells me about US chemical weapons and acid rain, I'm just not as surprised as I wish I could be.
His last words rang like a cracked bell outside Of a smoking capitol of conspiracies:
"When there's a new war, watch. A refreshing new ethnic restaurant will open in your neighborhood soon…”
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