Mother Goose

 

Soldiers lie on narrow stiff cots

dream of battles to bring them honor

They scream at the sorrowful mother

"Shut up

I gave birth to myself"

lying to themselves

in their darkness

clutching the penis

And I admit these days

I know little of her curving sunsets

and the audience never wishing for her end

 

Her pink forgiveness everywhere

her last light

becomes the first light

squatting in the North

She holds a book and candle

and I read summer

like a weird dream

She allows this amnesia

permits everything

denies nothing

even soldiers who shoot her

kill her children

then call that brave

 

When so many geese fly north at

dusk for no reason

and the river still wanders that way

I must wonder who

are the rats living in filthy holes

guarding their barren borrowed treasures

and She supports this too

silly as it seems

people slinging smoke up in the air

like they never want to see the sun again

 

In this momentary grace before the fall

when the arrogant conquerors

shoot themselves in the leg

home for Christmas

I look upon the despised despot

captured and paraded

like a carnival sideshow

"See King George Rassle the Savage Injun"

under the golden arches

over one million lies served

advancing the adolescent dreams of

funny white men with Boy-Scout-leader knees

and shriveled up testicles like apricot pits

 

I swear she suffers this too

bowing before everyone

yielding to no one

"Melt my ice caps

I flood your world

my seas rising three hundred feet"

Some call this anger

others say it’s sorrow

Only She knows it’s love

 

 

 

gary aker

12/21/03