Poetry Report: Syria Decisions

Poetry
Written By Scott Poole

“I pick a bomb up
and hold it to my ear”

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Syria. Decisions. Decisions.

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About to Go Off


I wake up
and the room is full of bombs:
torpedo shapes and missile shapes,
fins and no fins,
cold and quiet.

"Where do you want this one?"
says a guy in overalls,
suddenly at my doorway,
holding a smaller bomb
like a steel baby.

"I didn't order these," I say.
"You don't order bombs," says the guy,
"They're just delivered."

"I have bowling, tonight," I say,
"What the hell?"

"Yeah, what the hell," he says.

I pick a bomb up
and hold it to my ear
as if something inside
might tell me what to do
with this fucking thing.

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Scott Poole

Scott Poole is the House Poet for Live Wire! Radio, a weekly public radio show taped in Portland, OR and broadcast throughout the country. He is the author of three books of poetry, The Cheap Seats, Hiding from Salesmen and, most recently, The Sliding Glass Door (2011, Colonus Publishing). He was also the founding director of Wordstock, the annual Portland, OR book festival.

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