We open on a normal American living room.
Family photos lined up on the mantle, a Purple Heart
In its frame. But then we zoom
Closer. Splashed across the wall, like abstract art,
A bloody splatter.
You wonder what’s the matter.
A kill team from an unnamed Mideast state
Has slipped into the U.S.
To search for sleeper cells, who secretly await
Activation. It’s them not us.
What a TV fantasy. You’re asked to imagine
A mushroom cloud
Blooming over New York City, as Cheney did in
Pushing for the war in Iraq. Or that a crowd
Of desperate refugees
From seven, banned Muslim countries
Could pose an existential danger.
They could be in your neighborhood, that stranger
On the bus. They could be anywhere.
They’re the stuff of nightmare.
You let them in, whoever they are,
And see what happens? We carry the scar
Of every awful thing that has ever gone wrong.
Like a film reel, there’s a long
Shot of people running away, another boom
Then puffs of smoke, sirens as
Helicopters hover. Then it’s over. There’s room
For tearful pleas, silences.
Cut to the president, who darkly cites,
“People pouring in. Bad!”
You think, Maybe it’s better for cities
To err on safety’s side. What if only a few turn bad?What if there’s a ticking time bomb
And they’ve just taken
Your child? What then? Should questioning be a balm
While you look on, helpless, forsaken?
Be nice, and be a day too late?
Or should we use force:
Let’s make American mean again, a farce
Of primal fears. Wouldn’t that be great?
Gary Duehr has taught poetry and writing for institutions including Boston University, Lesley University, and Tufts University. His MFA is from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. In 2001 he received an NEA Poetry Fellowship, and he has also received grants and fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the LEF Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Journals in which his poems have appeared include Agni, American Literary Review, Chiron Review, Cottonwood, Hawaii Review, Hotel Amerika, Iowa Review, North American Review, and Southern Poetry Review.His books of poetry include In Passing (Grisaille Press, 2011), THE BIG BOOK OF WHY (Cobble Hill Books, 2008), Winter Light (Four Way Books, 1999) and Where Everyone Is Going To (St. Andrews College Press, 1999).
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