In Laos
Southeast Asia
there is still unexploded
ordnance from a little war
called Vietnam
Every year it takes someone’s limbs
In Belgium and France
farmers find similar remnants
in their John Barleycorn fields
and among the tulips
Centenarian explosives from one
of their innumerable imperial spats
That’s Asia and That’s Old Europe
where history is part of their religion
where Buddha and the Village
Green Preservation Society block progress
but here in Canada and the US
There was/is Tulsa and Kamloops
When I put my shovel to Earth to pave
the way for a new subdivision, lube joint
or man cave what will I recover?
In the schools
our past isn’t supposed
to have any bones
it is monuments made of marble
and shaped like phalluses and breasts
Tourists take pictures and make social media
posts while their kids whisper and snicker
at dirty jokes
Because the past is Lady Liberty’s or Queen
Victoria’s buxom chest
tissues and organs of appetite and intention
But boneless.
Jeremy Nathan Marks lives in Canada. Recent poetry and prose appears/is appearing in New Reader Magazine, Every Day Fiction, Unlikely Stories, Bluepepper, 365 Tomorrows, Dissident Voice, Jewish Literary Journal, The Journal of Expressive Writing, Boog City, Chiron Review, New Verse News, and Ginosko Review.