The Commute I

Posted on December 20, 2009 by Mary Beth Frezon

The radio this morning said
“we’re going to learn, now, about
the number of troops needed
to fight in Afghanistan”
My hand reached over and turned it off.
I knew I would.
I thought:
do I really need this info?
what info?
who decided?
and then what?
twenty-five hundred?
twenty-five thousand?
two hundred and fifty thousand?
Someone wants me to know
that they know an answer,
some truth they’ve calculated,
justified, tried and tested.
My hand moves.
The drive becomes one
of quiet and landscape
and thoughts of what is truth,
whose truth
and what to do with
stuff like that.

12/18/2009

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One Response to The Commute I

  1. Kevin Neuer says:
    December 21, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Afghanistan, Bananastan, in the words of Robert Redford.
    It’s a trick question, there’s no answer at all. Just a lot of ghosts from prior empire-builders who died in the mountains and the snows.

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