Clinton Van Inman’s most recent poem to appear here was The Real Missing Mass (February 2012).

Uncle
By Clinton Van Inman

I thought you died
In the last war but I
See you are up to your
Old tricks again

Pointing your finger
Bullying boys to join
Your cause of killing
People

O say can you see the
Fields filling with those
Who believed your old lie
That freedom means fighting

Now more clownish than ever
In those striped pants and hat,
Yet not as real as rocking children
Waiting, waiting to follow you, Sam