“for guns are the language of the strong to the weak”
-- Adrienne Rich, “Harper’s Ferry”

Look how blue the sky is
           she says
and I think
yes, here, but
it is night in Kabul
black sky broken by
the tracer lines of
incremental rocket fire
American jets running
new missions across
the Afghan night.

*

Steven had called to
give us the news
they’re bombing the bastards
he said
                finally
we should go all the way
and I said nothing
remembering burned rubble and
thousands dead or lost
but knowing, too, that
bombs can’t fix a world
that’s seen too much of guns and bombs
and the sour smell of hatred.


*