The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Tue 2/27/2007)

[RetroLounge]

New Hampshire, February 7, 2003

It's snowing again.
All day, reruns
of the blizzard of '78
newscasters vying
for bragging rights
how it was to go hungry
after they'd thumped
the vending machines empty
the weatherman clomping
four miles on snowshoes
to get to his mike
so he could explain
how three lows
could collide to create
a lineup of isobars
footage of state troopers
peering into the caked
windows of cars
backed up for white
miles on the interstate.

No reruns today
of the bombings in Vietnam
2 million civilians blown
apart, most of them children
under 16, children
always the least
able to dive
for cover when
all that tonnage bursts
from a blind sky.
Snow here is
weighting the pine trees
while we wait for the worst:
for war to begin.
Schools closed, how
the children
love a benign blizzard
a downhill scrimmage
of tubes and sleds. But who
remembers the blizzard
that burst on those other children?
Back then we called it
collateral damage
and will again.

Maxine Kumin

****************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[zingaro]

1. Oh. Man.

I got nothing else, except a little shake of my head as my heart clenches up.

Oh man.

[RetroLounge]

3. ...

:hug:

RL

[wildhorses]

2. one of the best comparison/contrast poems i have ever read

the juxtaposition is heart-wrenching, thanks rl:hug:

[RetroLounge]

4. ...

:hug:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear Retro...........

Wow, this one hurts......

It makes me think of Vietnam in a totally new and painful way......

And of Iraq as well.......as it should be thought of...

Thank you........:hug: