Three Poems from the Alphabet of Empire

Abstract

46 WLT NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2017 a. Absolute dud — A nuclear weapon which, when launched at or emplaced on a target, fails to explode Absence of war : dream state be ours [bow our heads] what is it to pray for a state of failure to keep the peace as if understanding the definition of peace obsolete . intransitive verb . : to be, become, or keep silent or quiet the loudness of war following us to the room down the staircase into the bunker dug out with a spoon. Heaping the bodies wordlessly into the holes of the earth and stirring + stirring the soil in their open mouths the lack of air biting at our bone-weary memories of a time when this was not the sounds of our lives. What for the fields of poppies, the strings of poetry tied around our necks, a prize awarded in monetized : hope? Words, stacked, cataloged, buried, and forgotten. Gods all around [bow our bodies] to their fury fermenting the earth : we bend hard but fail to hold our peace it drops to the earth and sinks [silently] [.] cover section belief in an age of intolerance Three Poems from the Alphabet of Empire by Mona Nicole Sfeir Author note: The three definitions that serve as epigraphs come from the US Department of Defense’s Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms (October 17, 2007, edition). m. Minefield lane — A marked lane, unmined or cleared of mines, leading through a minefield Is that not what makes a god the ability to lead us through brimstone and fire to the promised land? Who sets it forth then takes it back? Here is the path or perhaps not. Plant the thing that trips us up in a field. Imagine that. This is what we do. Take our legs so we may fall and fail. Then conjure gods to walk us through. v. Very seriously ill or injured — The casualty status of a person whose illness or injury is classified by medical authority to be of such severity that life is imminently endangered. Also called VSII. See also casualty status. When do you know you are imminently endangered? The dodo egg so fragile yet able to hold an entire species until the last yolk is licked. Dried head and foot housed in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Include a name tag for casualty status. How is it in our hardness we push across the earth/whose? There is a thrust in creating. Yet how thin the skin stretched over the life dividing within. What does it mean to authorize injury and/or death in the name of progress and freedom? Prepare a speech. A space penned for liberty. Take its temperature. Readings will differ widely. Unarmed + shot [how many?] Here is my tally: where in the world are you standing? Beneath an electronic billboard sink a needle deep into an escape valve. Home/job/coin-less:less:less. Build a wall and continue to bomb. A species that can hold rape as a weapon of war. Ground zero of our existence is where to place the bomb. Casualty status is not divulged. Where are you waging empire? Examine our democracy and report imminently endangered. Repeat overseas and redact. Access the damage and classify. Then sink to your knees and weep. WORLDLIT.ORG 47 Mona Nicole Sfeir was born in New York City and grew up in five countries. She is both a poet and a visual artist and recently created an installation of fifty panels for the Los Angeles Immigration Law Center. The three poems are part of a manuscript, The Alphabet of Empire, that draws from the US DOD military dictionary and a dictionary from 1898. Visit the WLT website to read these poems with the author’s accompanying footnotes. left Mona Nicole Sfeir, The Maps of Our Making (detail), 2015, acrylic, chalk, collage on canvas. Political maps are human constructs that have continuously changed since the first maps were scratched onto clay tablets. The painting lists dozens of names of cities that once existed on maps but have vanished due to natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions or due to human warfare and destruction. The maps in...