1 December 2001
Clint Popetz

War vs. Sex
no holds barred

[Author's note: scotch involved. Discretion advised.]

sex, hands down
sure, war has the really loud noises
††shrapnel crushing toddler skulls
††bombs vaporizing families planningweddings

but sex has those subtle sounds
††soft, almost imperceptible
††or sudden, of strange frequency
and war has the media
††renaming, refocusing, adjusting, aligning
but the media can't touch
††what sex does to perception
for taste, it's pretty even.
††tears and sweat taste salty
††regardless of impetus
now the smells of war can impress
††sulpher
††vomit
††urine
but the smells of sex...
††††I'm sorry, what was the question again?

12 December 2001
Joe Futrelle

Sending Signals

Suicide bombers "express their frustration"
Missiles "send signals"

If enough of these messages are exchanged,
no one will be alive to hear them

[a tip of the hat to Clint Popetz]

16 December 2001
Bob Porter

N E W S C R O S T I C S

___NEWS
__NEWS
_NEWS
NEWS

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are we going to just sit here and let
slimy, power-hungry thugs
help themselves to more and more
control over our privacy?
Remember that McCarthy ruined the lives
of many intelligent and even patriotic citizens by presenting a
facade of protecting the security of
the American people.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bewildered
Unapologetic
Self-serving
Hero?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Running wild, running free
under the banner of liberty
mowing down your family
so the world looks more like me
Feeling good, feeling strong
eating nails and righting wrongs
lighting fires and dropping bombs
darling, you should live so long

16 November 2001
Ben Emerick

breaking news: us school bombs grammar

western hemisphere institute for security cooperation (whisc)
i mean what the hell is that? an adjective? did someone forget a connective or something? despite official claims that no other name could provide a sufficiently vague self-description while preserving the onomatopoeitic pun self-describing the school's resurrection, a classified napkin has been leaked onto our wire, showing that military officials knew alternative names, grammatically correct, and yet they decided upon a name which flaunts the very linguistic standards by which we live. here are some of its contents:
whisque: western hemisphere institutionalized query uniformly evaluates
whssck: western hemisphere school for special countries kiosk
wiske: we isn't slavin' kid emigrants.
whisc: westerly hemispheric institute for securely cooperating
at the top of the napkin, scratched thru by several pen marks was the line: soarofl: 's over already? rofl!

5 November 2001
Paul Kotheimer

Deniability

This poem is not about the news,
but my pad sits on today's Tribune
and the heel of my hand blots the newsprint
and smudges friendly fire on the stanza,
killing innocent iambs.

This poem is not about the news,
but, from setting down my coffee cup,
a ring of money launderers
and covert coups d'etat
seeps through the page.

This poem is not about the news.
It won't be dropped from twenty thousand feet
or processed through the proper channels,
or sattelite-fed live from the Tien Shan,
or expert-rated for its market share.

This poem is not about the news,
but it's written on a dollar bill,
on the pulp of the last of the old growth.
--It is scribbled, in gasoline,
on a body bag, and shipped home.

www.newspoetry.org