by David Chorlton
The humanitarian bombing has begun.
The peaceful use of nuclear technology
has resulted in the evacuation
of two hundred thousand
people from their homes
while the Forest Service approves permits
to drill for uranium around the Grand Canyon.
Arizona’s legislature wants a state firearm
as a reminder of how the West was won
while at opening day for baseball
the pre-game flyover frightens the opposition
more than the home team.
The price of an education is rising in proportion
with the cost of not having one
and the man executed this week
didn’t have one
although it would have cost less
than the million dollar cost of an execution,
but it’s spring
with the acacia in bloom, all the better
for those who walk the streets
until one day they disappear.
Speech has become so free radio call-in shows
hire scripted callers to ensure
their argument won’t be argued with
when they say we’ll have accidents drilling
and clean up the mess
as easily as breathing life into the dead.
But democracy won’t be held back,
the humanitarian bombing has begun.
David Chorlton looks forward to the warm months in Arizona and enjoys the bite of the heat when it comes. He lives and writes in Phoenix, increasingly with the sensation that his poems are distractions, but they huddle together into manuscripts, for instance From the Age of Miracles, which won the Slipstream chapbook contest in 2009.
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