Missile Test

There aren't enough contrails in the sky
to draw a line to the stars, yet survivalists
build homes in sunken Patriot silos, unwrap
their meals underground. Dear Evening
News, dear Middle East on Easter, show me
the map with all my enemies in red and
my ancestors everywhere, but nowhere
for me to push a pin. Which makes me
a grateful witness, a grafted apple limb, all
blossom and burlap and just enough sun.
When the Berlin Wall finally came down
I was drunk already. Mapmakers beware:
your craft is called history, and mine
revision. In a film about The Roman Empire
I watched a continent consumed by a single
shade of green. Now the best we can thought bubble
is Star Wars shielding the heavens from
ourselves. Reports suggest the cargo
might be more than purely scientific. Which bible
should I get? I believe there to be many.

- Brent Goodman (from Eleven Eleven)

***