yes mam

e.e. cummings wrote “plato told” in 1944. It is a poem of such universality that it could have been composed 2000 years earlier, or probably another 2000 in the future. Not only does it state the fucking obvious about war, which we are seeing all over again in Ukraine, but it also takes a sly dig at the profiteers who never pass up an opportunity to do a little business. Which we are again seeing.

(The United States was selling the raw materials of war—including scrap metal—to the Japanese practically right up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.)

That's why it's my entry today for National Poetry Month.

plato told

him:he couldn’t
believe it(jesus

told him;he
wouldn’t believe
it)lao

tsze
certainly told
him,and general
(yes

mam)
sherman;
and even
(believe it
or

not)you
told him:i told
him;we told him
(he didn’t believe it,no

sir)it took
a nipponized bit of
the old sixth

avenue
el;in the top of his head:to tell

him