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

Qwo-Li Driskill

Qwo-Li Driskill is a Cherokee Two-Spirit/Queer poet also of African, Irish, Lenape, Lumbee and Osage ascent.  Hir work appears in several publications.

Snapshot

Tell me it isn't you in the photograph.
Say it's a 21st century trick or the
poor quality of newsprint.  It was in
this box, the picture of you with your
swaggering smile standing in front of
the sandcastle we built. Someone must
have cut your head out of that picture,
pasted it here. No sandcastle in the
background; a stack of bodies. Not
turrets and spires; the sharp points
of black hoods. Your lips imprinted
hope on the soft underside of my heart.
I named your right hand Comfort, your
left hand Strength. Your face was safe
harbor. An Iraqi man howls, twists
against a wall yellowed as dogs' teeth.
A soldier stares out at me, grinning.
Say it isn't you. Give me an argument
for absolution:  enough to erode blood.
Say it isn't you. I can't bear looking.

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