A Field Trip<\/p>\n
History looks out on the playing field
\nand some chestnuts in bloom along the Seine,
\nwhich is out of bounds.<\/p>\n
These kids are too big for the classroom.
\nThey knock over chairs, fumbling for gear\u2014
\ncompass tip to caress, electronics to drop.<\/p>\n
Outside, on the pitch, playing football,
\nthey aren\u2019t clumsy, they are graceful,
\nthey are dancers who sink to the green turf<\/p>\n
coupled like lovers. The chemistry teacher
\nexplains about gasses, how lungs dissolve
\nlike cotton candy on the tongue and you drown;<\/p>\n
he reads a poem by Wilfred Owen
\nand leaves with his models of gas
\nmolecules: green for chlorine, yellow for sulfur,<\/p>\n
mustard gas like a playground structure.
\nPupils slump over written work\u2014
\nBattle of the Somme, July \u201916,<\/p>\n
death tolls abstract as sums.
\nWe have to go, learn with our hands
\nlike the blind: pat the good dog<\/p>\n
artillery, fondle bayonets, pace
\noff the long divisions of graves,
\non our fingers tot up the plus signs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the Naming of Hurricanes<\/p>\n
Dido. Cleo. Gloria. Katrina.<\/em> Men did the naming, naturally. Still Dad went to war. Brought back an olive-drab He found it in the basement where I hide out Take it<\/em>, I tell my boy. Dad\u2019s army box<\/em>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Movie Night at Sunrise Manor<\/p>\n \u2018Island at War, Part II\u2019 tonight, Jump to the party scene. Most local girls Reader, forgive their commotion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Field Trip History looks out on the playing field and some chestnuts in bloom along the Seine, which is out of bounds. These kids are too big for the classroom. They knock over chairs, fumbling for gear\u2014 compass tip to caress, electronics to drop. Outside, on the pitch, playing football, they aren\u2019t clumsy, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":5374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[327,328],"tags":[326],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nA force of nature: unpredictable,
\nviolent and devastating\u2014
\nall thought of shelter swept away?<\/p>\n
\nwouldn\u2019t you think they\u2019d name
\na work of theirs\u2014a skirmish even\u2014after themselves?
\nMarathon. Agincourt. Verdun.<\/em><\/p>\n
\ncanteen, stencilled with his rank and name.
\nGood box<\/em>, says my son, lightweight, strong<\/em>.
\nGood for keeping stuff in<\/em>.
\nHis granddad was a silent man.<\/p>\n
\nwhen I\u2019m scared I\u2019ll hurt my squabbling kids.
\nTaut as a darning egg I sit
\nand watch the furnace leap into flame.<\/p>\n
\nLock up what you please. Just stay clear
\nof mother\u2019s rage and wars
\nno general wants to name.<\/p>\n
\nthough, if she saw Part I, Mum\u2019s forgotten.
\nIt feels like yesterday, their War.
\nOn walkers and canes they press
\nfrom pudding to the Social Room,
\nPlease Don\u2019t Disturb the Jigsaw Puzzle,
\nand some of them are English, girls
\nwho wed Canadian soldiers and
\nwashed up in this far-west beach town\u2019s
\nSunrise Manor, Tudor-themed,
\nOffering a Slate of Lifestyle Options
\nSo Nice To Come Home To.
\nMrs P. is late again. A flirt the other
\nladies snub, she stumbles in the dark
\nlooking for a seat
\nas the enemy invades a Channel Isle,
\nFrench sex workers are boated in.
\nThe bike of the wife of the local bailiff
\nhas a flat; a German officer stops,
\noffers to help repair it. In another world
\nthey might be friends,
\nhe\u2019s a decent man, she\u2019s hiding someone.<\/p>\n
\nwill go, it\u2019s awfully dull with all
\ntheir brothers gone and the soldiers
\nare quite handsome in their uniforms
\nand only following orders.
\nDecking the village hall they sing
\nthe songs her mother used to sing
\nalong with the radio, ironing
\nthe wrinkles out of our clothes.
\nNow Mum is baffled by the plot\u2014
\nwhy are things so muddled up?
\nResistance? She wrote the script.
\nGet me out of here<\/em>, she barks,
\nAt Sunrise It\u2019s All About Choices.
\nShe struggles to stand, as the other roses
\nfading from the chintz sofa,
\nfire off a disapproving shush<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nWhat good is Patience in the end,
\nTransportation for Outings and Appointments,
\nA Pond With Carp and Water Lilies?
\nThey cannot pause, rewind, replay\u2014
\ntelevision is a novelty
\nthey rented for the Coronation.<\/p>\n