Gunshot Shuffle

		Sitting in the brisk March wind,
			the air is cold and clear
				sitting out the warm April days
					speculating with close friends
						"Does she like me or not?"

		Sitting through the endless days
			of classroom games
				making strategy for the test.

		Stealing the teacher's chalk
			cutting class to escape the gripe
				and all the time
					there was a war.

		You wouldn't know it
			among gay whirling lights
				when the fair was here
					when our stomachs laughed
						from the gay rides
							we took for fifty cents.

		You wouldn't know the war was on
			when we sat together at baseball games
				talking about friends.

		A thousand roses bloomed this spring
			before they were cut off.
				Every blossom
					a expression of agony
						the war was far away.

		Lottery boy must wonder.
			A mixed up kid on a roller coaster.
				How long will he last?
					Who's going to get him?
				what's to eat in the Army cans today?

		There is no darkness here like over there.
	A place of hell where blood is wet and mud smells fecal.
			There's a forest of corpses
				where skin is gray like clouds at night.
					Only two shot dead on patrol today.
						Ambushed in the bamboo trees.

			One is a redneck, too young to shave.
				The other was burrowed by ticks
					sucked by leaches
						swarming with ants

				who crawl up his nose
					into his stomach
						and eat his body inside out.

		They are without fault now
			free of the walking heel.
		Their families wilt from the sorrow
			of their boys coming home
				in wood boxes.

		Somebody has to fight.
			Meanwhile, we herd ourselves like sheep
				in the hot Sun.
					Father of millions of red noses
						and dark tans.

			The President watches a baseball game.
		Nursing himself, after yesterday's news conference...
			and more taxes will solve everything.

		The dice roll.
			The spinning wheel claims its number.
				The Presidents don't change.
					Each as delicate as a blossom.
				Teased by match stick anger of the people.

		Why?
			Because you're old enough to die
				but too young to vote...
					that's the catch.