by Bill Sullivan
Did any poet dive any deeper to locate
the wreck, to find out who she was
and who she is? Go deeper to identify
what was essential or salvageable
or detestable? Go deeper to discover
the voice and the language within that bore
down to the core of war and oppression
and what they wrought? Say it so that we
and she had to not only acknowledge
that horror but also atone for it, struggle
against it- as she did until her battered
body left her?
Bill Sullivan taught English and American studies at Keene State College until he retired to Westerly, RI. He has co-published two books on twentieth century American poetry and co-produced two documentary films. His poems have appeared in both print and on-line publications.
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