For the Record

The clouds and the stars didn't wage this war / the brooks gave no information / if the mountains spewed stones of fire into the river / it was not taking sides / the raindrop faintly swaying under the leaf / had no political opinions // and if there were a house / filled with backed-up raw sewage / or poisoned those who lived there / with slow fumes, over years / the houses were not at war / nor did the tinned up buildings // intend to refuse shelter / to homeless old women and roaming children / they had no policy to keep from roaming / or dying, no, cities were not the problem / the bridges were non-partisan / the freeways burned, but not with hatred // Even miles of barbed-wire / stretched around crouching temporary huts / designed to keep the unwanted / at a safe distance, out of sight / even the boards, that had to absorb / year upon year, so many human sounds // so many depths of vomit, tears / slow-soaking blood / had not offered themselves for this / The trees didn't volunteer to be cut into boards / nor the thorns for tearing flesh / Look around at all of it // and ask whose signature / is stamped on the orders, traced / in the corner of the building plans / Ask where the illiterate, big-bellied / women were, the drunks and the crazies, / the ones you fear most of all: ask where you were