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LATITUDES, 2ND EDITION
​Poetry

 Ghosts
End x End
​So
by  Bob Lupo

Ghosts
My head full o’ stones…
They said we were attacked,
Enemy torpedoes in the night.

All the Country’s Generals sang 
Glory, glory hallelujah songs
And shipped me off to Viet-Nam
Half-a-world away:
A place to save,
A conflict to win…
Or Dominoes would fall 
And Tyranny would reign 
In Malay
And weaken the USA.

It was freedom’s last dance…

Moses Jones that bag o’ woe,
Hung in the Everglades not long ago,
A shoelace above slavery
& a hole in the hangman’s soul
Wailing the dreams of Robert E. Lee,
Wistful hymns of reverie
In the Land O’ The Free.

It was freedom’s last dance…

Moses Jones that bag o’ woe,
Hung in the Everglades not long ago,
An ol’ Cypress tree his stage t’plea
Amid the hangman’s glee:
Lord Jesus, lemme lay my troubles down!
Lord Jesus, lemme lay my troubles down!
In the Land O’ The Free.

It was freedom’s last dance…

My M-16 full throttle
Grenades rimmed my chest,
Leeches made love to my legs
And Sinclair Oil & Aristocracy
Demanded my naivete,
I smelled hypocrisy.

Myths in the muddy mist
Deuces wild in the chase,
The die rolled one-by-one
Snake eyes in the elephant grass.




​Whiskey, Weed & Asian Women 

Supple forms & mangled limbs,
Long live the living.

It was freedom’s last dance…

What color fear 
In the morning light,
Racks of slaughtered meat
Running red.
Words stampede like cattle
Slated for doom 
and war kills all but the dead.

I walked the haunted land and knew
Nobody should die for a Lie.

I see mouths scream,
See eyes covered in gauze,
See arms shredded
Faces blown away,
Pain slays me.

I see youth slip dead,
Names flee my throat
I howl.

Numbed back to the World
I play games,
Teeth, clatter-click
Smile into the Hole games.
Pull the pin,
Fire in the Hole!
Dark & Empty & Black / Clatter-click.
​

Moses Jones that bag o’ woe,
Hung in the Everglades not long ago,
An ol’ Cypress tree his stage t’plea
Amid the hangman’s glee:
Lord Jesus, lemme make peace with my soul!
Lord Jesus, lemme make peace with my soul!
In the Land O’ The Free…

Freedom’s last dance.  
​
Picture

                               End x End


Brown leaves skip along rain-slicked streets,
Kids in the rain lost in noise…
Once threads of renewal
Bedded by moist soil & nurtured by nature,
Leaves die where they fall, useless slush
Crushed by churning wheels and hostile winds,
And turn to dust… 

Too many soldiers off to doom,
A president’s place in history
& glory to generals all.

Once nurtured by mamas
Once a person & a soul,
Soldiers die where they fall.
Taps the last salute,
Extinguish the light.



​
​                          So


And then there was me
A lonely stretch of imagination
A species wormed from the Earth,
Clever and shallow as sin
Sand to the sea,
Gross as blood in church
Pleas wail to Heaven,
A woeful victim of fate
Promises O promises
Flailing in failure,
Fault lines inside the Soul
Cheap and brittle as death,
Nothing to do but laugh.

​
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  • Donate
  • Support Groups
  • Guild News
    • Member News ONE
    • Member News TWO
    • Member News THREE
  • Our Authors
  • Member Guide
  • Guild Business
  • Our Work
  • Events Calendar
    • New Event Suggestion
  • Membership
    • Pay Annual Dues
    • Membership-Student
    • Pay Annual Student Dues
  • Gallery
  • Writing Resources
    • Connections
    • How To …
    • Local Help
  • Contact
  • Literary Review
    • Submission Guidelines
    • LitReview First Edition
    • LitReview Second Edition
    • LitReview Fourth Edition
    • LitReview Third Edition