Viet Nam Generation Journal & Newsletter
V3, N3 (November 1991)
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Poetry by Stephen Hidalgo
The rhetoric of bombs
The rhetoric of bombs
takes the floor again
to decide for us
the election of '92
a slapstick travesty,
a bad burlesque.
I watch the war, knowing
the stock responses,
but cannot give them.
Irony bleeds to numbness,
emptiness replaces anger:
no life appears
beneath
the surface,
blocked by signs,
choked with yellow sashes.
America's own streets are
battlegrounds
long neglected.
When will we repay
such an unwieldy deficit?
The War is Over, Abroad
Except what we can ignore:
A few kidnappings, oil fires,
Attempted assassinations,
Local insurrections,
And unreturned hostages.
Now it's time to attack
Problems on the home front,
Transportation and crime:
Transportation for life
Of a "criminal" population,
Accompanied by criminal neglect
Of the problems in our streets.
While the "real" issue remains
A lower tax on capital gains.
Stephen Hidalgo, English, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556-0368