Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.

Ona Gritz

Ona Gritz is the author of two children's books, Starfish Summer (HarperCollins, 1998) and Tangerines and Tea (forthcoming, Harry N. Abrams, 2004). Her poetry has appeared in the anthology Which Lilith and a number of journals.

A Taste

My seven year old son
spends Thanksgiving on base,
shares bread and bird and thanks
with his aunt, his cousins, their friends.
My ex is the only father at the table.
The others are in Iraq,
pictures of these children
tucked into fatigues.
Though I'm not there
I know fear sits heavy at this table,
fear of what may happen to these men,
as in Iraq, families gathering for meals
share a fear of what these men might do.
When he returns,
my son owns G.I. Joe complete with ammo.
I wait, braced for bloody battles on the rug.
But my boy has had a taste of war,
of missing fathers.
He holds the soldier tightly in his fist
where he can neither die nor kill.

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