Pre Emptive

I listened to the congressional hearings
on the resolution to kick the crap out of Iraq
just in case
S.H. decides at some undetermined
point in the future to do something to us bad.

The attitude changed me:
I’m following the president's lead.
I’ll have my breasts removed
as a preemptive strike against cancer,
and get my daughter a hysterectomy
as a preemptive strike against teen pregnancy.

I'll break up with my boyfriend
as a preemptive strike
against heartbreak,
and before the end of the day,
I'll have sold my car as a preemptive strike against dying
in an automobile accident.
I know there are a lot of other things
I should do, but I'm trying to
avoid being paranoid
about all the terror that will occur if
I don't stop it dead in its tracks

before it takes me out.
I’ll try not to forget to step outside and
enjoy the big blue sky
before it falls.

early spring, 2003

This poem appears in a slightly different form on Poets Against the War


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