A Calling
they called it a bad war
they called it the good war
they said we won
they said we almost did
they said we never would
they said we never should have
called it a war
some said it cost
one president his life
and another, his presidency
they called that war a dirty war
they called rape a war crime
they called war crimes, rape
they called war a crime
they called that neighborhood
a war zone
they zoned it for roses
but it exploded
so they called it dead
they called it off
and by the beach
poisoned by warheads
they called your name
and you looked back
one war torn day
and wept
Leslie Simon grew up on Chicago's South Side and founded Poetry for the People at City College of San Francisco in 1975. Her publications include Jazz/ is for white girls, too (Poetry for the People), i rise/ you riz/ we born (Artaud's Elbow), High Desire (Wingbow Press), Collisions and Transformations (Coffee House Press), A Music I No Longer Heard: The Early Death of a Parent, with Jan Johnson Drantell (Simon and Schuster), and The Divine Comic (Spuyten Duyvil Publishing).