Victor Henry- Three Poems

THE SYSTEM

 

is top-heavy with politicians who speak for corporate capitalists who control the media that informs the masses of unquestioning people what to think and dictates the party line in order to target minorities who fight amongst themselves to keep the illusion that the American Dream is alive and well while the military plans the next war two years in advance.

(First published in Contraband.)

 

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD

This old Spalding two fingered mitt
on the hand of a one armed ballplayer
is timeless.

Something like an early caveman's injured fist
wrapped in the skin of a prehistoric animal.
A medieval falconer's glove awaiting
the peregrin falcon's return.

Wrigley Field.
A swift-footed center fielder
entangled in the ivy.
A white speck barely visible in his claw
as still and lifeless as an unhatched egg.

(First published in Mindprint Review)

VIETNAM VETERANS ON PARADE
     

    Every death is a murder, every death in war   
     Is a murder for which someone is responsible.
               Heinrick Boll, The Train            

Envision an America without him.
Feel free in the obits
To bury his past.
Tell jokes at the cemetery,
Because here
There is nothing to tell.
The Vietnamese will volunteer
Their dead in exchange.

For the honorable politicians
Of venerable corpses,
Build condos, banks, and casinos
Into room-sized replicas
Of Capitol Hill.
When you hear the faint sound
Of his decomposing flesh,
Recall who profited.
Remember your peers.

(First published in Prophetic Voices: Anthology of War and Peace: An International Journal)