Patriot's Inventory

By Anne Waldman

This article appeared in the March 17, 2008 edition of The Nation.

February 28, 2008

a prisoner is bound and gagged in free fall
the backdoor gift exposes an exchange rift
while a cognitive switch haunts its own turncoat
and X. goes laughing from the chambers of ambition
the war room curdles its agenda in dead air
meta-discourses fade, hurricanes! floods!
people are repelled by the pearly marketplace
(its scissors, wire, wash-buckets, megabytes)
simple things plummet below her arsonist radar
people alive with cumbersome weapons up the ante
hard strategy of market desire collapses
consumption fails and you take a walk in the park
yet the iris scan exposes a cold glass eye
no claim for any songbird economy
as collateral damage is rarely over
don't get me started
expose the cultural pillage! trillion dollar war
its cleavage its cloning deals
a poem stolen out of the patriot's inventory
it's in all the newspapers today...

Subscriber Login

4 ISSUES FREE

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

.
Most Read

Issues »

Most Emailed

Issues »

Popular Topics

Blogs

» The Beat

Why Obama's Got "Complete Confidence" In Clinton | She won't bring the change his backers believed in. But Obama never really shared that belief.
John Nichols
Posted 32 minutes ago

» Editor's Cut

Robert Gates: Wrong Man for the Job | What we need after eight ruinous years is experience informed by good judgment.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Posted at 9:40 ET

» The Dreyfuss Report

Obama's New Team at State, Defense, NSC | And some comments about why John Brennan didn't get the CIA job.
Robert Dreyfuss
Posted at 8:36 ET

» State of Change

Barack Obama's AIDS Advocacy | Fighting AIDS is an all-hands-on-deck effort.
John Nichols
Posted at 7:30 ET

» Passing Through

Forget GM's Plan -- Where's The Government's Plan? | Create a demand for green cars.
Jane Hamsher

» Act Now!

Power Shift 2009 | Young activists underscore the urgency of dramatic action on climate change.
Peter Rothberg

» The Notion

Custodians of Empire | Obama's national security team: a steady hand and the same old thoughts.
Tom Engelhardt

» Capitolism

Is Personnel Policy? | How much do personnel choices reflect the Obama administration's policy direction
Christopher Hayes

» And Another Thing

Election Updates --Good News and Not | Details on some ongoing stories
Katha Pollitt