Sonnet: In an Uncertain World
On an airplane, I saw the face of imperialism reflected
in your eyes. The shrieking eagle wheels, Damascus
down below--brown on brown. I'd read your piece
in *Foreign Policy*, but hadn't believed a word of it.
We'd find a way to commemorate the average man,
you said. This is unreal, I thought. Let us pray for this
man, sang the eagle, stunningly. No sentence of banish-
ment that can not be reversed upon appeal to a higher
court. The dead continue with their swimming motions,
graced with courage and long preparation. Naked as
ever, naked as air-controllers unprotected by unions.
An alternative view: exterminate them like mice, don't
mourn them uselessly. The furniture of home--our un-
expressed fondness for it, whatever the dictators do.
Hal
Halvard Johnson
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