Far Away Swimming Pools

We shivered in
home-town pools,
Hurricane-cooled,
Chill toweled away,
While front-paged
Soldiers, sit
Poolside, legs
Dangling in
Water skied blue.
Or water-logged away
From Baghdad heat.

Fragile bodies and skulls
Perhaps buffered.
Calls for body armor
Ringing hollow.
As generators
Chug on --and off.
Iraqi homes with
Half-time power.
Dusty swelter
Inescapable.
No one asks
How we talk of
Freedom on one hand,
But build soldiers
Swimming pools
So far away.
Unless chicken
Hawks planned
They never return.


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