Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Predator
With apologies to Wallace Stevens
Other readings: “On Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the X-47B.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a Predator A
In which there are three missiles
III
The Reaper circled in the autumn winds.
It was the eye of the operation.
IV
A marine and his rifle
Are one.
A marine and his rifle and a Raven
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The Hellfire explosion
Or just after.
VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the drone
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the Global Hawk
Circles the heads
Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the predator is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the drone flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of drones
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Washington
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For an RQ-7.
XII
The village is a ruin.
The Predator must be flying.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The Predator sat
In its hangar.
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