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FREEDOMWAYS                            THIRD QUARTER 1972

In the quiet dignified houses Nixon flashes on T.V.
Smiling his asinine smile and waving his asinine wave
While men lie along the road like so much garbage 

If only a trade could be made
Send the garbage and leaves to Nam
Send the corpses to suburbia.

Take the war out of the T.V.s and put it in the 
        complacent streets
Kick Amerika awake
Before it dies in its sleep. 


THE CHEERLEADERS
HARRISON KOHLER

John Wayne
Leads
A charge of leathernecks against the japs or the jerries,
He's tough and not afraid to die. 

Georgie Jessel
Is
Lean and mean in his tailored American Legion uniform, 
Grizzled veteran of hellish vaudeville campaigns.

Martha Raye 
Has
Her green beret and combat infantryman's badge,
She goes where the action is.

Bob Hope
Travels
All over the world
To entertain "our boys."

War 
Is
A paunchy worn out movie hero

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POETRY FROM VIETNAM

A tired old man
A menopaused hag
A grotesque comedian
       Parading
           Patriotic
                Obscenities.

MOURNING THE DEATH,
BY HEMORRHAGE,
OF A CHILD FROM HONAI

BASIL T. PAQUET

Always the children are included
In these battles for the body politic.
Prefaced with mortars and rockets
The Year of the Monkey was preluded
By the mephitic
Stench of blasted bodies sullenly drifting from the pocket

Of refugee hootches at Honai
The enemy patriots knew the young
Would be glad to die for the revolution.
The allies were certain the vox populi
Called a mandate for flag-strung
Counter attack and awful retribution.

The majesty of the annihilation of the city
Could be heard clearly in the background,
I could only wonder what ideology
The child carried in her left arm-- necessity
Must have dictated an M-16 round
Should cut it off, and her gaining the roll of martyrology. 

Her dying in my arms, this daughter
Weaned on war, was for the greater
Glory of all concerned.
There was no time to mourn your slaughter
Small, denuded, one-armed thing, I too was violator,
And after the first death, the many must go unmourned.
  
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