Dirty Word

Nothing makes one reflect like defeat.
I drove a hundred miles to cast my ballot
and threw away my vote. America was
attacked and now we have entrenched
in a warring posture, pounding our chest
to the rest of the world imperially.

Don’t mess with oil-consuming, highly
industrialized, mightily militant, God fearing
Us. Might is Right. Our leader has been
vindicated. We are true blue, and our
collective necks are as red as the
stripes on Old Glory.

This morning’s headlines will be filled with
national right wing victories. We have slanted
away from “Ask not what your country can do
for you . . .” We have rallied behind our
Commander In Chief who has sent the aircraft
carrier Abraham Lincoln into Iraqi waters.

Poor liberal, I, can only sit and lick my wounds.
Why do I feel so hurt? What is my weakness
that makes me think as much about the souls
on the sands over the Iraqi oil, as our penchant
for collective justification to gas up our Chevys
and Fords to clog our freeways?

Am I simply wrong, as my comfort-seeking
brother thinks? Where in the Bible that our leader
thumps is justification to take the lion’s share of
the world’s wealth because we can? This morning
I want him to do a little turning of the other cheek.
I long for a softer America.