SOME WORDS ON WAR ON ENEMIES ON US

from Alice Notley, "It's Dumb to be a Member of a Dominant Species"

A conversation. "I'm waiting for . . ."
a myth of rescuing the future

We sanction no war whatsoever
just or unjust.
As a matter of fact we do nothing
we use no more fuel, drive no more cars
because we have tied our hands
with the silver-grey fabric.
It's hard to eat, hard to write. Our enemies
can kill us if they want
I think they're us anyway
and we were already doing that, killing us
if we wanted

The complete poem appears in Disobedience (Penguin, 2001)

Alice Notley will be reading in Tucson on February 24, 2007, in a reading cosponsored by Chax Press, POG, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. More details will be available later from these sponsors.