by Alan Catlin
The police must be raiding
houses, their sirens on full
blare, searchlights waving
like crazy magic wands made
out of lasers, though imprecise
at fixing locations, finding what
is hiding out there in the dark
For a moment the light is
terrific, enough to read by,
if you were so inclined, that is,
if you had the time or were not
otherwise occupied
by all this chaos
all this confusion
No one questions what is
going on, no one asks who has
the authority or what for
Why bother?
Asking will not change what
has already begun, what is going on
They must know what
they are doing, these policemen
and women
Knocking on doors in the night
Yelling, "Open up, open up!
It's the police!"
We have no doubts about what
they are doing
We always open up
We have no choice
Alan Catlin's latest chapbook is a long poem, "Thou Shalt Not Kill", an updating of Rexroth's seminal poem of the same name. Whereas Rexroth riffs on the abuses of the Eisenhower adminstration, the update observes abuses of power in the current administration with particular attention to the cynical, criminal behavior towards the Katrina hurricane victims. One year later, the victims are not forgotten. No matter how many candles the Bushes light, the appalling lack of humanity and the blatant hypocrisy of the folks in charge is as apparent as the disenfranchised, the homeless, and the poverty stricken people of the Gulf states.