Brian Peters
Tactical Evolutions
We packed the idols, before we left our homes,
in straw, in case, according to the legend,
they should sweat, and blasted off into the desert.
The aching heat gave way to a painless silence.
The occasional chatter of our young ones grated
and we stopped it. The idols, lying side by side,
quibbled incessantly about speed and destination.
The cause of our exile wreathed itself in flames.
Everything we feared in the tradition, we encountered:
flesh-eaters, striped flowers walking on their petals.
It was hard to behave naturally, but we enjoyed
coping. We knew our destruction would be only relative.
For so our origins had been. There were always tribes
to live off. We had the brains We had the money.
We had the idols, frost-cold, electronically
jabbling. All they had were our gutted hearths.
Page(s) 279
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