Joan Payne Kincaid
1999

The Cats Are Waiting For Their Breakfast 
1
Murderers
are easy
        to
understand. But this: that one can 
        contain
death, the whole of death, 
        ...can hold
it to one's heart
        gently ,
and not refuse to go on living,
is inexpressible.
        ____THE
FOURTH ELEGY
Rainer Maria Rilke                                                      
                                                                  
Their blue enigmatic eyes resent my writing and they sit like toys in a group of six holding life dear knowing they are safe in this world Rilke’s infinite , blissful space between world and toy.                 

A day begins, one that will never be repeated again we are at war a special war a corporate endeavor to take over the world BIG BROTHER says bombing is love it saves people...
The dogwoods bloomed yesterday and continue suspended woody petals collecting and dispersing sun...
copies must be made 
to send to the spiritual
who choose not to be aware
of facts

the facts that  little Yugoslavia
has sovereign rights
that it is only a small part of the plan
to take over the Balkans.

Is it spiritually wrong to take to the streets to demand diplomatic solutions?
Is the world actually going to allow us to take it over?


The Cats Are Waiting For Their Breakfast                                 
2

Can a lie be told so often it is accepted as truth?  Can murder committed with the most horrendous weapons in history be condoned by caring humanity?
The cat sits on the mouse creating symbols that make as much sense as the lives most of us live...  lives of inaccessibility even to ourselves but does that mean attempts to work for peace are futile? Is it no more than pretense marching and waving sighs to stop it?
The sun hits the barn out back whitely the crabapple blooms predictions of the fruit to come for birds waiting behind the curtain of expectation;
this beautiful day is such a gift
in this particular space
yet across the ocean elderly and children
are hiding in cellars for safety
dreaming of such a day
with air raid sirens moaning
the terrible acknowledgement
that we will be bombing them out of reality they will be no more than  part of bombed out ground unrecognizable as anything separate from the crater ...  that the life they hold so tenderly and vulnerably will be stolen and smashed like a toy.

            c.    Joan Payne Kincaid  

          
FROM AN OLD SONG LEARNED                                   1
IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL CALLED
MARCHING TO PRAETORIA

We are marching for Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia
we are marching for Yugoslavia
while NATO bombs away:
depleted uranium
uranium uranium
depleted uranium
poisoning the countryside forever.

While everyone blames the latest demon test demon test demon while everyone blames the latest demon politicians can persuade them to.
We march where Yugoslavians
goslavins goslavians
we march where Yugoslavians
sing their national anthem

and air raid sirens sing their songs
rens sing their songs rens sing their songs
and air raid sirens sing their songs
while refugees run through  snow

to escape the NATO bombings
TO bombings TO bombings
to escape the NATO bombings
we drop for humanity.

We are planning now to colonize
to colonize to colonize
we are planning now to colonize
just like in ancient Rome.

I’m reduced to writing doggerel
ting doggeral ting doggeral
I’m reduced to writing doggerel
due to corporate lies.

FROM AN OLD SONG I LEARNED                                          
IN JUNIOR HIGHSCHOOL CALLED
MARCHING TO PRAETORIA
The media says anything
says anything says anything
the media says anything
the President says is true.

We are an imperialist nation
ist nation ist nation
we are an imperialist nation
und we shall rule the world.

Amen!
c.          Joan Payne Kincaid
 
Joan P Kincaid
1