OBITER DICTA

Abnormally crass

NY Times

Books section

9/12/01

“What should those

who have lost

friends and family

in yesterday’s

terrorist atrocities

read?”

I don’t know

looks like

no one

pays poetry

any attention

at least

outside

a few

that see

it has no inside

refer the poets

in turn

to Richard Price

Observations on

the Nature of

Civil Liberty

Part II Section iii

“Of the Policy

of the War

with America”

And yet

we imagine ourselves

ill used

in truth

we expected

to find them

a cowardly rabble

who would lie quiet

at our feet

they have disappointed us

risen

in their own defense

and replied

by force

they deny

the plenitude

of our power

over them

and insist

upon being treated

as free

communities

this has provoked us

and kindled

our governors

into rage

1776

notebook

entries

pages apart

collapse

years

the only

method is

empathic


Image: After Goya by James Perry. This poem originally appeared in Fallujah Magazine (2016).

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