THE LAST THRESHOLD
I want to believe we still talk about
Peace
as if it were out there somewhere
an illumination in more Xmas card languages
than anyone speaks
"eventually"
won't come for me to see it
Deborah writes
"we all live in a
morally ambiguous vortex"
but the rough beast is done
with his slouching
Bush is massing
his troops for the kill
our dinosaur generals are ready
they are used to the rivers
of blood
that weep from dismembered bodies
howl in the streets of Ramallah
shriek in the streets of Jerusalem
February 27, 2003
Jerusalem
— Shirley Kaufman
Uni-verse
Greater in battle
than the man who would conquer
a thousand-thousand men,
is he who would conquer
just one-- himself.
~ Dhammapada, 8,
translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
