Washing Up

One war started with a botched invasion
And a lot of brutal bombing. Poets
Of the invaded, underdog nation
Were published frequently in translation.

Then another war followed an attack
Of supreme, indiscriminate mayhem
With a determined effort to render
That mayhem moot by retaliation

Sparing none of the trapped population,
And so poets of the earlier war
Were washed aside to publish fresh poets
Trying to survive the new genocide.

Thus wars toss up poets behind headlines
As storms raise and erase wrack on shorelines.