RANTING IN AMERICA

Meanwhile in America/the news anchors make a show/of indignation at the sun, righteous/& well-coiffed as fallen angels, &/never speculate why we might/really be so hot, never mention/ that we are blowing up mountains/& burning their black hearts to keep cool.---From “Heat Indices” by Dave Bonta, Via Negativa, 07-22-11

RANTING IN AMERICA

There’s fire in the hills that needs deep dowsing,

there’s fire in the hills that needs good licking! 

A cry for combat, if there was one:  All patriots,

stouthearted sons and lovers, all brave hearts,

from sleepy hamlets to the hungry metropolis,

rally to these stars and stripes. Let’s finish this! 

Meanwhile, in America, its heralds blame the sun

for doing its job of fiercely shining--- not to burn 

the parched villages whence come the spunky lad

now coming home from wars in Iraq or Baghdad-- 

but to nourish those amber waves of grain,

and fill the granaries from California to Maine. 

No, no one blames the blowing up of quarries

in mountains to extract fossil fuel for lorries 

that lumber through the highways of America

bringing to every hearth and home in America 

that same camouflage of a bomb strapped

to every man, woman, or child and snapped 

ready to explode as it has now detonated lives

out of their homes in Arizona, market dives 

threatening bankruptcies that would not respect

Wall Street giants, Bronx tramps, and now expect 

even what used to be the strongest, richest country

on this wobbling planet, to fold up, quit as sentry 

to the peace and quiet of a still lovely blue planet

whose very people might have forced its sun to set 

in the deserts of starving Somalia, bleeding Sudan,

butchered Afghanistan, un-safehouses in Pakistan, 

even in every child’s crying corner labeled  American.

Ah, but the weary hand in the farm is still American: 

There’s fire in the hills, but I’ll lay down my hoe,

bear a bucket, lick that fire. God. See the job through!

---Albert  B. Casuga

07-22-11