War

They came with blaring horns and banners Crudely costumed in their march Specters of writhing dead and dying A mask of their discontent Across the line of color, creed, and class Across proprietary claim of each gender Each mother for each son Each father for himself Each woman armed with ransomed pride Each person with a private cause Each child heady with the ten minute applause The cameras bring to light I watched a hostile procession To their country's foreign wars And in the meanwhile a pregnant mother From an hospital near Harlem was turned away A shelter there had no more room for a black father A teacher saw the ratio of her class Grew demographically like a third world country Decided she would not teach in the Bronx But the Board of Ed had no better offer A social worker calling on a restaurant Could not understand Why the days unused food was thrown away While so many shivered in hunger O yes, I did applaud The activists condemnation of war The one between the rich and poor Between the black and white Between the black on black ghetto drive-by Between the wall street people And that white family who eats at my table Between the cold and formal rules We use to mask our austerity That gives us superiority O this an old war, a long war The war why all wars are fought The bat in a spider's web ridiculously caught.