Day 28 of Poetry Month...

                           FACTS FLUTTER BY

 I have noticed that facts flutter by 

and it's as if they present in a foreign language

or in another dimension

or perhaps the lights just need to be turned up.

I know a guy who helped his kid build 

a little wooden bird house.

Adorable.

And then took his kid out to the desert 

to kill birds.

(It’s called quail hunting.)

There's something inconsistent about that.

I know a friend who believes 

she understands the ways of the world,

of politics, of truth and fiction.

We saw a film today, 

unapologetically critical of Mr. Cheney,

who used to be Vice President of the USA, 

among numerous tasks.

One of his other tasks 

was being head of Halliburton Oil.

One of the things he did while Vice President-- 

I’m not really sure under which job description 

this belongs-- 

was to take his country to war 

in a faraway land, 

where coincidentally, 

lots of oil lived.

He kind of thought of himself as President of the USA. 

And the real President didn't seem to mind.

Ostensibly, the war was because the far away land 

had weapons of mass destruction.

But curiously, 

that proved not to be true.

There were other details of world events 

in the film we saw

that, even though they were presented 

with a clearly critical point of view,

did all happen to be true.

But that became invisible to my friend.

It's what happens when you put your truth filter on.

I firmly recall hearing that the real President 

sent a bunch of royal Arabs

flying safely back on their jets 

to Saudi Arabia after 9/11,

(you remember, when guys 

from Saudi Arabia piloted those other planes,

into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon…)

just in case…well, you know…

I can't swear that's true, 

but I did hear it.

©Sally Stevens 2018