Horseback

To feed your kids and retire at home nowadays,
you gots to have dough. How can you protest

the war in Iraq, the one in Afghanistan,
Russia’s invasion of Georgia,

China’s protection of Burma and Darfur,
and control of Tibet? How can you question

the growing intervention in Africa by the you ess,
their new regional office in two thousand and five

to observe and help? The locals, we’re told, are thankful
in Darfur. In the Congo, the children orphaned by aids.

Gaza. There is not one thing to change but everything,
down to the shoes you wear. This is the time

for the last big protest, the first one global.
There’s a war on. We are all on horseback.

© 2005 John Kerkhoven

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