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Contests : Wergle Flomp Free Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2006 : Sarah Estes Graham
WAR IS SO BAD: A COMPENDIUM OF TRUTH
The dogs of war howling
like the enduring bells
of Fog (The Fog of War)
in a pristine forest (or Desert) during wartime.
These doves, these geese flying the frail winds
of Peace
Like Dogs....
The Dogs of War.
Cats are fatter even
than dogs
The Dogs of War.
Two men hunt in the jaded wood,
TAT A TAT TAT
The birds beat their beaks into the bark
breaking them
like bird machine
guns
or Dogs
The Dogs of War.
Is it a woodpecker?
Or a Dove—
of Peace
American Eagled across this blue landscape like blood
like oil
like blood.
Dick Cheney sucks in his fat-cat Republican stomach
loads, cocks and pulls
Two boys playing with guns in the stale thicket forest
No blood for Pheasants!!
No Blood for Oil!!!!!
This is America.
Dogs of war are rusting
like the automobiles that used to be made in Detroit
before we let foreign tanks take over, make over,
the highways
like blood
like Oil.
But back to the forest,
where the dogs of war
the winds of war
the fogs of war
the songs of war
are howling their blood curdled sound
like A Mighty Wind (of War).
In the morning,
blood seeps into the Word made Flesh,
fleshy-fat
like Dogs—
The Dogs of War.
Sent as a joke to Pen Pushers and Poetry.com, this poem was a finalist in the 2006 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest sponsored by Winning Writers. It is based on the list of overused phrases in Jendi Reiter's advice to war poetry contestants, proving that there is an exception to every rule.
About Sarah Estes Graham
Sarah Estes Graham is an MFA student at the University of Virginia. She is the recipient of distinguished awards too numerous to mention here or elsewhere. Her poetry has been enjoyed by readers who probably also read The New Yorker, The Norton Anthologies, Poetry, and The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. "War is so bad: A compendium of truth" was composed in response to war, which the author is against except in cases of pre-emption.
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