WAR IS GOOD
Arlene L. Mandell



Driving west on Bodega Highway

to the ocean we pass a billboard

whose patriotic red and blue letters

proclaim: WAR IS GOOD.



On the beach this bright November day

a bare-chested jogger runs at water’s edge,

two riders on chestnut horses canter by

as we read slow novels.



Earlier we scanned the morning news:

names of three dead American soldiers,

photos of incinerated buses, body bags,

an Arab boy who lost his eye.



A lone seagull waits

for our sandwich crumbs.



Headed home we pass the sign again,

notice the diagonal slashed

across it, the bottom line:



Don’t believe what you read.

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