Volume 67, Issue 8

Poetry
Sanitized
by Joshua G. Pollack

Floating like a dandelion, descending along on its white plume
The soldiers looked up to it like sunflowers looking to the sun
The metallic cylinder, an oatmeal box, but definitely no Quaker
Floating eyes watching above, an Old Testament G-d for a new age
From the air the soldiers look like daisies, daisies about to be cut
 
A flock of metallic birds of prey, diving in
The screams of their descent shatter windows and ears
Like a streak above the iron behemoths of war
Veering off before they strike, was its prey spared?
The white phosphorescent fires of its droppings says not
 
The black & white screen flickers, silent and cold
Like a Charlie Chaplin movie with cross-hairs
The house rushing at us, as if on the express route to Oz
The screen flickers and the electric snow descends
It would have been better if served with popcorn
 
I watched war as no human has a right to
Sanitized and regurgitated on the screens of CNN
Finally, war the whole family can enjoy

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