(updated from poem published in July 2017)
Trump goes to war
as Trump pumps 49 missiles into Syria
An unprovoked attack
caused by moral disgust at
kids being killed by chemicals
and caused by our rationalized national self-interest
Who know what will happen next?
As we speak, Russian ships are harassing
American ships in the Mediterranean
Perhaps this will end in a nuclear war
but who cares
What’s most important
is that no one pushes America around
We told Assad that he couldn’t use chemical weapons
and he should have listened to us
The problem with first strikes
is that no one can predict what will happen next
After all
no one pushes around Russia either
nor Iran, Syria, or ISIS
Barbara Tuchman once said that
all world history
is a story of penis swaggering
Each of the conflicting countries (men)
compare their penis sizes
and compare their muscles
(after all, Putin does have a black belt)
they compare their political power
and destruction capacity
Even Kim Jong-un in North Korea
is in the game
with his penis, his totalitarianism, and his nuclear bomb
All the while innocent civilians in Syria
just sit there and watch
as their cities are turned into dust
and citizens all over the world
especially in the U.S.
shiver
like a child
in the back seat of a speeding car
driven by an angry, drunken uncle
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