They shouldn’t have done that,

tear him out of graduate school

as recklessly as people rip a page

from a telephone book

 

They set his brain on automatic:

here is how you place the barrel of a 38

behind the ear of a village chief while he sleeps,

here is how to come from behind with a garrote

 

Lyndon Johnson died peacefully during a nap

MacNamara wrote a book

The assassin was discharged

into the rest of his life

 

Next Poem / Published Works