At a Press Conference Concerning the Invasion

After a brief exchange of position papers,

the generals have repositioned themselves

at a table, occupying seats above the ranks

of media people, ready to face what isn’t

a war but an action, a defensive reaction

to purely offensive acts by an enemy

and vice versa, though certain areas,

since personnel might be, we must understand,

endangered by any premature exposure,

are temporarily blacked out or off the map.

And now one general, being front and center,

basically wants to tell us right up front,

his mouth up front to the ear of the microphone

as frankly as time allows he wants to be loud

and clear to the man on the street so he won’t lose

what he might call a civil private perspective.

Behind him, another general lays his forearms

down in a tight chevron. One interlocks

his fingers as if to illustrate a stalemate

among opposable thumbs and national digits.

On the left flank, one avoids the mere appearance

of a uniform response, by giving a low

five, then ten to his right flank under the table.

The amplifier is now squaring the facts

and going so far as to say the finest men

it’s ever been its privilege to reassure

the mothers and fathers and little children of

would love to hear us bringing our hands together

again and again for our precious heritage.

The generals rise once more in unison,

tug down full metal jackets, stiffen to

attention, and half turn in alternate,

but equally opposite directions, and collide

slightly, recoil, reform, and file offstage

out from under the lights and out of step.