Anti-War Protest, 1968

Henry was there when Forrest Gump
and Jenny found each other
under the shadow of the Washington Monument

and Allen and Cal Lowell
protested against the Viet Nam War
the same day Forrest shows

President Johnson his buttocks.
You can’t win war with flintlocks,
you can’t win capitalists wars.

Henry rode the Greyhound
all the way back to Papalote,
his legs asleep,

meals of potato chips and Coke,
romancing a hippie girl
from Pittsburgh to Memphis.

And in the blink of an eye
we lost the war
just like we will lose this war

and the sacrificial lambs,
well, they won’t come back---
only the wolves in sheep’s-clothing survive.