Destruction is My Name

By Rebecca Cady

 

My young body hit the wet soil

The ripped parachute hit me shortly after.

Smoke and bullets traveled by me

While I perfected my next commanded kill.

Before I knew it, the villagers died.

The blood and guts made an ugly pic

Of families, soon I thought

…forgotten.

My habit of repeated loss

Became an habit of calculation,

And keeping score of sacrificed

Bags of flesh delivered me

Out of this hellhole dubbed Viet Nam.

Three Buddies eradicated,

But somehow I continued to exist,

…Extension.

My Asian delicacies fed

Me whenever I hungered.

Delivered hearts and souls without

Thoughts of tomorrow’s disappointment

Of unwanted pregnancies;

Of flower buds that would die before

Any sunlight could kiss them, before

…Creation.

My government’s masters stood

In another space and time.

My government could worry less

If opiates took soldiers.

No emotions, Sergeant, your name’s

…Destruction.

 

 

Poem 2: Write from the point of view of anything not human

Family Tree

By Rebecca Cady

 

Comrade blue sky is my ceiling

And then his soulmate clouds decorate

While other tree members reach

For feathered friends flying

As others embrace many

Birthplaces of nature’s

Wild life generations.

Some are martyred for the sakes

Of our human neighbors.

Some suffer for the cause

Of regrowth

Of our cousin plant life.

Seasons can be amazing

Or can be awful to trees

Green is the color of our hair

In the breathtaking spring and summer

And in astonishing autumn

We dress in earth-toned hues.

But only in the chill of winter-tide

Do we reveal our true

Splendor and silhouettes

When clothed in lacey snow

And outlined in pinks and blues

At the end of each day.

Trees are movie-stars

Surpassing most legends

Unless those humans decide

To wipe out another barked relative

Like countless of tree kinsmen

That has faded away in the past.

The family of trees

Sing ballads with brother breeze

And guards Mother Earth when

Mr. Weather is in a bad mood.

Why a tree’s artistic canopy

Has cooled many a human

And our ever-changing wardrobe

Has provided pleasing portraits for millennia.

Forget flora and fauna

For the time being…

Our family of trees has watched

Over the world of all living things…

One in particular… Mankind. (Continuance of poem)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem 3: Read Ted Kooser’s poem “Tattoo” Write a brief poem in which the speaker describes a person she or he is observing.

Coddled

By Rebecca Cady

 

The bundled bear cracks open his front door

Large ungloved paws feel for weather’s warning

And his straight nose smells other breakfasts prepared.

Back in all black, he proceeds up the stairs

Out to the icy parking lot he goes;

Quietly steps across cracked sidewalks,

Stopping to get warm with a sip of tea

He shyly greets the passers with a nod

He sighs at the thought of another day

Of work without meaning except for pay.

Blue eyes cast down at the floor for no one.

Movements of experience get food ready

For customers who come to buy reds and greens

Fixed by this “Coddled King” behind the throne.