The Mind Is Burning
Firestorms
rage---wild animals run
displaced---nowhere
to go---but the city.
Bears &
backyards, foxes & porches, bats & belfries.
Air heavy with
ash---it sticks in my lungs,
almost---too
thick to breathe.
Today I said: “I
got things on my mind,”
“It’s self
imposed---your sleeplessness,”
said the
doctor,” it’s all---all mental with you.”
“La petite
mort”---I mumbled.
He looks at me
quizzically:
“ the little
death, doc.”
Still
sleepless---under a funereal-pallor of fluorescent light,
parts of a Tofu
taco spread before me, but the taco
smells like
animal grease & death.
Listlessly, I
pick at the vegetable center
& discard
the shell.
I can’t even
imagine sleep.
The taco stand’s
blue light thrusts
a pale knife
into the black side of dark.
Sipping my 5th
coffee I watch CNN newsreaders
bite lips in
feigned anguish talking
of the End Of
Days with a pastor,
then comes a pacifist
general who claims
war with Iran
will lead to our destruction.
The screen fills
with ATOMIC MUSHROOMS,
then huge orange
flowers & SINGING children holding hands.
I yawn---still sleep seems distant.
My eyes close.
War on my mind.
Firestorms
raining down on Dresden,
Hiroshima
imploding, slaughter on Normandy Beach
burning bodies
in ovens at Buckenholdt.
Mass genocide in
the Congo,
beheadings in
Cambodian Killing Fields,
death marches at
Baton, slavery in Mozambique,
Child auctions
& sex abuse in Thailand,
Ancient
Religions promising death & dismemberment.
Government war
machines running on our blood.
False prophets
& plagues in the Holy land.
Gods killing
Gods---fools killing fools
death stinks
like the sweat of man.
I get a 6th cup
of joe---knowing
I’ll get plenty
of sleep
when I am dead.
Bio: Steve De France MFA has traveled widely in the United
States. On more than one occasion he
hitch-hiked across America. He rode
rails on freight trains, worked as a laborer with pick up gangs in Arizona, dug
swimming pools in Texas, did 33 days in the Pecos city jail as a vagarant,
fought bulls inMexico, and dove for salvage off a small island on the coast of
Mazatlan. His poetry has been published
in most of the English speaking countries of the world. Recently his work can be seen in The Evergreen Review, The Wallace Stevens
Journal, The Sun, Rattle, Why Vandalism, as well as others. He has won writing awards in England and in
the United States. And recently was
nominated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize. He
continues to write poetry, plays, essays & short stories.