The Honey War

Van Buren County, Iowa, February 184–

Because we all had our minds on death
and taxes, we never thought just to move.
We all stood there, looking wanly up at the sky,
mouths hanging open like at the movies
when the deal is really going down, and history
overran us, overwhelmed us. We were stuck, forever
in the present, forever imagining ourselves
as other than we were, what we still are.
But how do you make God laugh? You tell Him your plans.
The cartographers convinced us of nothing
we didn’t already believe, and already cast our lot,
all of one like mind, and all fighting that sweet war.

Copyright © John Casteen
Originally published in Meridian, Issue 20, January 2008