Reprisals

"...in war all
wonder is dead"
          ~ Dave Bonta


In the kitchen of the Polish 
        art history professor, the freezer 
is stocked with bottles of vodka.
        Tables overflow with bread and curry;
in the next room, guests are chatting 
        with a visiting scholar about the rise 
and fall of republics. It's spring,
        the air mild with the scent of lilacs
and pink magnolia. I can't remember  
        how I wind up mentioning to the scholar
that General "Ray-Ban" Douglas MacArthur, 
        whose remains lie next to those of his second
wife under the marble floor of the MacArthur 
        Museum downtown, took a sixteen-year old
Filipina starlet as his mistress when he was 
        fifty. But I remember a Filipino historian
who gave a lecture, once, on the importance 
        of paying attention to "useless information"
such as this— without which, data would only 
        be data and give no clue as to the actual 
ramifications of conflict or conquest.
        On the eve of the Battle of Manila Bay, 
what rumors did merchants, fisherfolk, and 
        water carriers hear? On the first of May, 
1898, Commodore George Dewey said "You   
        may fire when ready, Gridley." The next day, 
the entire Spanish fleet was sunk and 
        the Philippines ceded to the United 
States. There is always a price for any exchange. 
        We, or those like us, are simply collateral 
in wars over which we have never had any say.