Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Diane Payne
44 years old
Monticello, AR
Diane teaches writing at University of Arkansas-Monticello.
Division
The girl sits at the desk working on long division. She sees her mother walk to the fence and flip the bird at the neighbor woman. Then she returns to the flower garden and finishes pulling weeds. Satisfied, her mother sits beneath the tree admiring the flowers.
Later, the mother comes inside, washes her hands, and asks the daughter what she'd like for dinner. She doesn't care. You never care about anything. Don't you even care about this war? If three thousand of ours are killed, we'll kill 30,000 somewhere else. Divide those numbers and figure out if you care now.
She thinks about dividing those numbers, but requests macaroni and cheese for dinner instead. In her journal, she draws a picture of her mother flipping the bird with one hand and carrying a peace symbol flag in the other. She titles it "Half and Half." Something is missing. She draws division symbols around the border. Satisfied, she closes her journal.
