ABOUT

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

ARCHIVE

LAGNIAPPE

MAST

SUBMISSIONS

 
WHAT IS A WATERSHED?
by Derek Webster

Western liberals! An earthquake has changed
some important particulars! Like cherry trees
in L.A. Japanese gardens, our institutions
pose of us a question: will we protect them?
Does cherishing ideals mean doing nothing?

Algeria saw its ruling authoritarians
ignore its people: the Islamic party won.
The main plank in its platform: abolish
democracy. No more elections! Back to the
6th century as if it were Tuesday.
That situation has become
more understandable today.

Debate bravery and caritas in the West.
Believe our actions are justified, not right.
Fifty years of war mythology
we have been striving to forget gracefully
may become again our unwilling reality,
a horror outweighed only by necessity.
If we must change our mentality
from peace to war, the very word "West"
will change, too:
                              no longer "the prosperous few,"
the confused hatred of our selves and society.
No more billions to every nation in the world
to foster trade, tolerance, and technology.
No more allies who can't choose their side.
We must choose, too: hatred of the West
(sore many our exploitations!)
or bedrock belief -- in what?
That embarrassing word -- civilization.

All, still, a big If. They will not stop?
Our government, armed forces, and companies armed
with greater respect for other countries
may limit this conflict. Probably not.
Some Monday morning may flow up our pipes --
contaminate our water tables for a century --
anthrax our general -- and suitcases blooming
atomic in a twenty-seventh city --
there will always be a need for more words,
but when will those words be ours again?

Mother, what is a watershed?
A place high among mountains,
a quiet nothing where fallen water
without benefit of choice, runs to one
or another distant ocean. Our hateful,
unchosen fate may splash in that moment.