Poetry Friday -- Reading by Flashlight

My recent reading has not turned loose of me just yet.

I took out my copy of Poets Against the War (edited by Sam Hamill) and browsed a bit and shook my head that this book was published three years ago when the first lady uninvited poets from her poetry forum after getting wind that they might speak against the war. Time flies when it's not your town getting bombed.

I found today's poem on the Poets Against The War website. It is a poem that speaks of the consequences of war (as did Greetings From Planet Earth, although Kerley's book was more about human consequences), reading by flashlight (as did Letters from Rapunzel) and the question of "why do I have so much when others have so little?" (as did How to Steal a Dog).

Here is the end of Nancy Flynn's poem:

Reading The Oregonian by Flashlight

.
.
.
My flashlight makes a circle, enough light to read by,
and I feel like Abraham Lincoln. Isn't this
what character is made from?

In Baghdad, three years now, and electricity's
only reliable four hours a day.



Read the whole poem here.

MsMac at Check it Out has the round up this week.