The Poem In Time Of War - Sherman Pearl

[Larry Robinson]

The Poem In Time Of War

should wake the city shouting EXTRA! EXTRA!
then whisper the story behind the story
like a conspirator.  It should be short, stirring
as the president's call to arms;
soft enough for a flag at half-mast;
strong enough to stiffen the bereaved;
spacious enough to serve as a body bag.

The poem should carry the news that men
die miserably for lack of.  It is
a brief on behalf of the living, a paper megaphone
for the voices of the dead.  It must be
the world's last will and testament, a listing
of what will be left.  It steals from forebears:
Sassoon's doomed diary and Auden's call to love.

The poem would be a prescription for healing
but who could read such a scrawl?...or a bandage
over the wounds, except that blood
tends to obliterate words.
Maybe all the war poems could be sewn together
into a vast thick quilt we'd pull around
our shoulders; might warm us on nights like this.

	- Sherman Pearl 
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