Simple Explanations

all bonds are cut
and I don't fit

I am the odd
stubborn jigsaw
piece that will
not find its place
in this
most pleasant
game.

there: tall in the air,
resplendent on happy lawns
are flags ­
cloth, vinyl, big, small
they all strike me loud.

remind me of other nations mine
where symbols of pride turn
insidious bruises.
sentinels who do not let me forget ­
what it stands for
and that in your name
and for your protection
and with your funding
abuses were carried out last night.

there are, you see, declared and
undeclared civil wars.
"Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean" *
born in one, I easily
recognize the signs in another

and though we make
our gritted peace
and bitter water-cooler smiles

I see it everywhere ­
a 'we the people'
reduced to bastardized
symbols
simple explanations
flags.
more bombs
less teachers.

an entire nation of averted eyes
where sister kills brother
easily
and brother forgets sister
happily

shattered memory bits of human sameness

because if in your eyes I see not myself then
bombs are possible

and I know that you are me and I am you

but sniper bullets find me,
scar me cynical and sad

bendtwist me into other, hateful thing
and I do not fit
and flags burn me rageful
and I cannot face them
memories, sameness, smiles.

and sight only goes
as far as finger pointing will take me.

there: to the flag in the sky.

* Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Simon and Schuster. 1992. pg. 7.

Casual News

today is five alarm fire day
bloody Sunday kind of a Wednesday
discordant and too too much
overkill

empty shells
bullet casings
or people ­
you choose which.
wasted.
flourish, lurid whirls ­
I am all question marks today.

like where and why
boys died today
how tears do not wash out
newsprint ­
(that's what I've been thinking today)

despondent angry
vitriolic vigilante kind of a day-
shake my fist and weep kind of a day

hard rattle breaths
cutslash possibilities dead
(like boys)
marked by desert suns
obscured in jungle vines
gasps and goodbyes ­

it is an ordinary Wednesday,
mid-February.
an occasion observing nothing.

© 2004 Lorena E. Duarte Q. From the Red CalacArts Publications chapbook ¿Under What Bandera? AntiWar Ofrendas from Minnesota y Califas.