Eric Howard
(USA)
Below are three poems on theme of war. The first, “Hieroglyphics,” is based on the book by the ancient scholar Horapollo. The second, “Aerospace Tarot,” addresses three famous American warplanes. The third, “Intelligence Update,” is based on eight memos of the same title presented to President George W. Bush. The headlines of the memos were the Bible verses that are quoted in the poem.
____________________________________________
Hieroglyphics
When they draw a man with a rifle
they show the destruction of a city.
To show the destruction of a nation,
they draw a hooded man holding out his arms.
When they draw a burning book,
they mean a scholar tortured until conversion.
What of an old lady feeding pigeons?
The defeated hunger for redemption.
By the disc of the sun they mean
the wheel that can’t be seen turning.
By sacred words written in a spiral?
A calligrapher shot dead in the street.
What do they mean by crickets?
They mean the disappeared.
What do they mean by a wasp?
War’s jaw and sting.
When they draw a watch being hammered
they mean the anger that breaks what’s made.
What do they mean by a star?
The god of darkness, staring into fire.
By one who shouts from a tower they mean
one made to watch his wife
and family killed one by one.
They hang his portrait in the classroom
where by x they mean y.
The heart is too empty or too full,
so how do they show the scales that will not settle?
By Libra, dangling as it flies.
Aerospace Tarot
P-38, Burbank’s five-sworded,
counter-rotating, fork-tailed
child of Operation Vengeance,
Rosie the Riveter’s mower
of columns, in thousands
you stormed the nightmares
of the survivors of your whisper
as Californian as surf guitar.
B-58 of arrowhead wings,
master of time to climb to alabaster
atmosphere, your strength roared
to silent desert parking lot and cost
10 cups of gold. Knight of swords
with a coke bottle body, nuclear club,
you almost waged the micrometer’s war
against the flesh falling from a tower.
F-22, the zero at the game’s end,
grounded angel that may yet be
the chariot that kills every enemy
for all our money, two of pentacles
dancing in a dumb show that ends
when you strangle your pilot,
your kill ratio unblemished,
you crown our supersonic frailty.
Intelligence Update
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Here I am Lord, Send Me.
Dearest burning coal touch my lips and free me
Dear rifle I hold, eyes I sold into nightmare
Dear mold and decubitus ulcers
Dear Since Being Diagnosed
Dear offering of the flesh and the blood and the spirit
Dear friends, what we will be has not yet been made known.
Dear ports, lands, children, and calloused hearts
Dear John
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast, O LORD.
A city of war bubbles on a windy sea
If only you would slay the wicked
for whom I have nothing but hatred
I am fearfully made
My test is a microphone and warplane stick
I fly armed in darkness, and yet you see me
My steel home rides on unseen waves
We work as our children lie silent
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
My struggle is not against flesh and blood
but against the rulers the powers of dark and evil in power
the tank crossing the desert at sunrise
the names I don’t remember, you do.
Roll, disassembly line, unfurl your exhaust,
raise some dust, forge the words
that will come when silence is death,
for the Lord who will reward everyone the good that he does, slave or free
It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
My nation is holy and my priesthood royal
Why do you call me good?
slaves, submit to your masters
the man in uniform on television
the flag at his side by blue curtains
and the stone by which they fall
all fallen in the war
I wage with my own soul
Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.
My soul yearns for you in the night
with no light to guide me
but what burned in my heart
to see the blood disclosed
for the feet of the poor
to trample the lofty city
under raised weapons and tank treads
the dead rise singing
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Three days from now we will cross the river
God has given us this land
the Jericho road is a dangerous road
but we are dangerously unselfish
we will find safety on the highway,
even in the whore’s house
when the enemy soldiers come looking for us
she will know her enemies
The king is not saved by a might army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His loving kindness, To deliver their soul from death.
I have lived long enough to see
under stars made by the breath of your mouth
and the sea stored in barrels
the toppled statute and the cheering women
the kisses and machine guns,
grenade launchers, spontaneous
burst of new song
voices all around start singing
Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared & wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote…This is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign & brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided.
Soldiers in the places speaking a choking language
holes in the walls where shells came through,
bricks in swimming pools, bodies
on the stairs, purple clothes and gold chains
scattered on marble, blood trails
leading over thresholds, suicide notes,
bank statements, checklists, dragged blood, tanks in gardens,
heavy vehicles that shake the road at dawn
____________________________________________
BIO
Eric Howard is a magazine editor who lives in Los Angeles. His poems have appeared in Birmingham Poetry Review, Caveat Lector, Conduit, Gulf Stream Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Plainsong, and The Sun.