The Mystery
1.
The mystery of our time
is the addiction to violence
we understand the blossoms returning
to dirt in August but not this
we understand the dying of the light
but not the shooting or the beheading
Open it
like a box with another box
inside it and inside that one
another –what is it –what is it—
the spike of pleasure also among those
who merely watch the film
or the video
with a kind of adoration
2.
I did not want to say
the screaming baby
makes the mother and the older
brother both want to kill it
3.
in the subway today
two veterans went through the car
asking for money or food
they said they were homeless
MYSTERY—2
They said they served us
in Afghanistan and Iraq they said
they had post traumatic stress syndrome
I wanted to scream
Those were two useless wars
I mean those wars were evil they were criminal
and my husband sitting across from me
wanted to scream those men were hired killers
he carries on like that
sometimes at the dinner table
though we know so many of these boys
were just trying to escape poverty
there was a door and they rushed through it
not considering consequences
and here we were at 72nd St.
silently looking at our laps
like everyone else in the car
trying not to cause more suffering
