The Problem With The Bombs
for Adrian Mitchell
The President cannot sleep. He knows
where the bombs are, each one, hidden between
the statues of saints and in quiet orchards
and at railway stations and even in private houses.
He knows that bombs have also been placed
between the pages of books, in letters and speeches
and prayers and children’s stories. He knows
the chapters and pages and lines.
He cannot sleep because he hears the bombs
as they sit there, in all those places, and it is
his job to keep them there ready for whatever
may happen; the expected, the random.
He is not quite sure what he did with his cuff links.
When did he last use that joke about Stalin?
Is the bomb in the car or is the car in the bomb?
Who is it who might tell him?
The bombs are in cathedrals and zoos and injected into
the necks of private citizens who were persuaded that
an operation was a good idea.
Is the bomb inside the angel or is the angel
the bomb? Should he tell his mistress?
Would she suddenly explode?
Page(s) 39
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