U.S./U.K. Bombing

Bombing: a few impressions
They
are bombing
with 500 pound gravity bombs
dropped from B52s
at high altitude
into a "kill box"
then rebombing
with 15,000 pound
fuel air explosives

They
are bombing
with 5000 pound laser-guided
pounders that burrow a cave-hole
(then the screams at detonation)

They are bombing
with cluster bombs
filled with yellow bomblets
exploding barbed-wire
fragments the same color
as humanitarian food packets
(it's all for the children)

They are bombing
Social Security
and pension funds
(they are bombing health insurance
for every generation's
injuries and care)

They are bombing away
retraining programs for layed-off
airline industry employees
(for their full employment
at neighborhood art programs
and worthwhile jobs
in non-profits
helping hungry
and bewildered survivors
handle the contradictions)
along with warm meals

They are bombing
with cruise missiles
(lacking authority for
nuclear-winter warheads)

They are bombing to show bombing
is wrong and terror is the norm
(they are bombing
a nation not a military threat)

They are bombing human rights
and international law
(they are bombing to promote alternatives
to suicidal hijackings and carnage)

They are bombing and rebombing
the Bill of Rights
(to start military tribunals and torture
of mocka-skinned suspects with names
longer than four letters)

Who
are they
to order bombing
(it feels like a coup)

Who
are they
to bomb away
the oceanic samba
of civil society
to bomb away
the poignant harvest
an entire generation
labors to articulate