Rather than fulfilling their military obligation,
fulfilling their poetry obligation --
After all, what's more fulfilling,
learning how to kill or love?
Those who become soldiers
are evading the Poetry Service --
dodging the Poetry Draft.
Isn't it their duty to their Country
more to become a poet
than a brainwashed murder robot?
When the young contemplate what branch of the Service
to join,
They should know they can contemplate
joining Poetry,
That Poetry is a Service that serves
the realization of Utopia
more than becoming skilled
at killing.
Too long it was thought the young were needed
to go to war,
Now the young are needed to go to peace.
Now the young are needed to go to poetry.
A legend of the small press poetry scene. Antler's Selected Poems was published by Soft Skull Press in 2000.