Wednesday, March 19, 2008

FIVE YEARS AFTER

by Alan Catlin

for Norb Blei

Five years after

the terror war
began

war protestors in
pink picket
IRS HQ in DC

"Stop payment
for the War"

signs say
"The Human Cost

Is Too Great"

recall the red
hands of

Condi Rice
five years after

and counting


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.
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