It's easy to forget
   about war 

but in this magazine
   the road is blown to bits
   by mortars 

there are pictures of apartments
   pock-marked by bullets
   families
   laid open in alleys

in this building 
   no one is home
   whole rooms are gone
   a mouth with the teeth knocked out
     
on a balcony
   laundry is hanging
   fabric waves 
   in the breeze

all over town
   a plague has crawled in
   from out of the mouths of machines
   and men gone crazy

on the corner 
   at lunchtime
   a boy stands
   holding a gun.


from ‘House of the Unexpected’ (Wild Ocean Press)