Guys Expended for the Greater Bad

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

When beautiful young men are killed, the sign

They stand for towers over them.  Forget

Their armpits.  Make their flag a holy shrine.

Their symbol lingers.  Few recall their sweat

In hairy sex.  The flag they represent

Is anthemed, all but worshiped.  Hymns are sung

To Nation.  All the hearts that loved are bent

To U.S.A.  None knows how they were hung.

So what?  No poems celebrate their stretch

Inside their women, men (whatever).  Like

A loving bayonet that sings the etch

Of male romance inside them is that spike.

  “America the Beautiful” is what

    We play, forgetting balls delivering nut.

© Phillip Whidden