"In memoriam for some women," "Another Way Drone," and "Thirteen Ways Drones"
In memoriam for some women
blood on a gray floor of
weathered wood––4th Ward
Houston, a shack–a kind of
being silenced––
a kind of
thick despair––where
profit proffers aid
not there
Another way drone
the drone is thick with ash
and advertising
the drones of change, tching, tching, tching
jingle jangle in the air
the drones drone on and on in the
target rich environment
in the tree tops the baby will fall into
the silence of the drone
Thirteen Ways Drones
––after Wallace Stevens
| I Among twenty tiny cradles, the only moving thing was the eye of the drone. II The drone eyed three targets searching for a tree with three cradles III The drone whirled in ashy winds it danced in destruction. IV a drone and a human are one a drone and a human and a cradle are one V A drone does not know which to target the sounds of infants or the sounds of poets the living earth of just after VI Drones filled the long windows with barbaric gas The shadow of the drone crossed, to and fro. The drone traced orders of men their indecipherable causes VII O tin men of war Why do you imagine golden drones? Do you not see how earth disintegrates around your feet? |
VIII I know noble algorithms, and lucid, inescapable targets; but I know, too, that the drone is involved in what I know. IX When the drone flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of humanity. X At the sight of drones flying in green light, even the bawds of brutality cry out sharply XI The drone flew over Texas in a golden plane Once, vainglory pierced him, and he mistook projectiles of his own words for missiles XII The drone is moving. missiles must be flying XIII It was evening all afternoon Ash was falling and it was going to fall The drone sat within shrouds of rubble |
Martha Jackson Kaplan is a Pushcart nominated poet and flash fiction writer who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She has a passion for history, a sense of place, and language itself. She has published both in print and online and has won awards from Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. You can find her flash fiction at Bending Genres II, an essay in Bramble V (online and in print), and is thrilled to be published again with Unlikely Stories Mark V. More about her can be found at MarthaKaplanPoet.com.
