Butchers Against the War


Doug Holder is the founder, publisher, and co-editor of The Ibbetson Street Press. This poem appeared first at Sketchbook (July/August 2010, volume 5, issue 4).

Butchers Against the War
(based on a comment from Billy Collins)
By Doug Holder

No I am not another weak-wristed poet,
a weeping willow
against the unjust war,
the kind who says
"Oh, yes you feel
but I feel 
so much more."

I am a butcher
against the war.
I tear through the animal's flesh
but it's the killing
of boy for boy
that I deplore.

I leave my job
my apron damned, 
streaked
with dried blood—
but still
I rail
against those
distant killing fields.

I have cut
a huge hanging
side of beef
with my knife's
serrated, rabid teeth
but I abhor
your own hackneyed butchery
the carnage
of a carnivorous war.

Posted by Annmarie at 11/3/2010 11:35 PM
Categories: today's words
Tags: poet war Billy Collins Doug Holder butchers
 

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