Punk Rock
I’m going to sponsor a punk
rock concert: in exchange for
a ticket, everyone who comes
is given a musical instrument,
chairs on the stage so people
can sit and listen as well as play
favorite songs, but you say all
they’ll make is noise, cacophony
is the word. Precisely my point,
I reply. I once knew a guy who
formed a garage band named
Dow Jones and the Industrials,
their breakout songs, published
in The Toe Jam Review, were
“I Wanna Hold Your Hardon”
and “I Wish I Was in Dixie,”
the name of the homecoming queen
known to twirl a mean baton
at this school somewhere
in a Middle American suburb
with a lot of two-car garages
and more punks pounding their
drumsticks than drums, if you
know what I mean.
Horses and War
God created imperialism
by giving horses dull teeth.
When they chew on grass
they pull it up by the roots,
thus destroying their land
for grazing, causing a need
to move to greener pastures,
no matter who lives there.
Horses have eyes on each
side of their head to keep
on the lookout for big cats
and other dreaded predators.
Yet for thousands of years
they were essential in human wars,
since victory was usually on
the side of the bigger horses.
Often wars were started to steal
the horses of some men in order to
fight battles against other men
to gain more horses and land.
It wasn’t until World War I
that petroleum replaced grass
as the fuel of war, yet we all
know what happened when
at the start of World War II
brave Polish cavalry rode out
to confront a German blitzkrieg
by a host of panzer divisions.
William Heath has published four poetry books: The Walking Man, Steel Valley Elegy, Going Places, Alms for Oblivion; three chapbooks: Night Moves in Ohio, Leaving Seville, Inventing the Americas; three novels: The Children Bob Moses Led (winner of the Hackney Award), Devil Dancer, Blacksnake’s Path: a history, William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest (winner of two Spur Awards and the Oliver Hazard Perry Award); a book of interviews: Conversations with Robert Stone. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Hiram College. He lives in Annapolis.
Featured Image: “War Horse” by Don McCullough under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
