by Joel Solonche
Even here
even in this church
this house of peace
this place sacred to him who said
blessed are the peacemakers
even in this place
this warmonger
this criminal of criminals
this shiftyeyed one
this george w stands for war bush
cannot conceal his crimes
the murders by the thousands
the mutilations by the tens of thousands
the devastation in its utterness
visited upon the innocents
the old men and the young men
the women and the children
they are on his face
I see them there
small shadows on his face
they are in his eyes
especially do I see them there
in his eyes
that cannot stop glancing from right to left
that cannot stop glancing from left to right
that cannot come to rest on any single thing
that will not find a resting place in any place
that know no peace
that know no peace
that know no peace
J.R. Solonche is coauthor (with wife Joan Siegel) of Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter (Grayson Books). His poems have appeared in many magazines, journals, and anthologies since the 1970s. He teaches at SUNY Orange in Middletown, New York.
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