Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Susan McCaslin
Susan McCaslin is a Canadian poet who has published twelve volumes of poetry.
Shame
Shame (written during the bombing of Baghdad) 1
Each day the music whether we will or no.
Outside, magnolia’s unfurling slims the air
even now uniting the worlds we are, one divided current,
heads devouring hearts, heads marching backwards as to war:
“Hallelujah, glory, gory, hallelujah.” “Holy holy holy,” saith the wind.
Shame falls out of the sky. Crash helmets, gas masks, tanks,
hungry voices of children in the loaded air. Who will heal the frightened enemy—“ourself?”
Stockmarket graphs—barometers of greed. “Shock and awe” of terror’s inhuman blast
unveils no weapons of mass destruction but our own.
2
Across from the Langley Colossus, tranced faces munch burgers while Baghdad blazes on screens one and two, the hockey game on screen three.
Thank God it’s finally Friday and off to the movies for something vicariously violent or maybe a “chick flick” to distract from the horror that is our daily bread.
3
Here on the lawn, Magnolia, lover, beloved, shudders to her roots
knowing April will swell in her again, releasing love’s ample white blossoms
