shot tourists do not make the headlines anymore
a battle-hardened culture
its crumbling courtyards
campus bombings, academic cartels:
a collective balding envelops European Theory . . .
the loss of human measure
so many murderous marches
through a graffiti-covered century
a dirty hallway plunged
in history gone haywire
insurgent hundreds set
roadblocks to pent-up ports
slogan shops in muddy districts vanish
civil trouble in shutdown cities
the old road to a clifftop
the mood of chronic despair
has its impact on rural futility
oil pipelines over the ridge
solving peso politics
this is cigarette territory
shell-shocked students tagged with modern tolerance
the rebel faculty flag
flapping in holiday air
© David Lumsden, 2012
This poem was published in Island (Australia) and Parnassus (U.S.A.) [not THE Parnassus]