Shrines of War

Poem by Juan Carlos Diaz

My war laughed at me today

It told me not to feed it anymore

From the food grown in adolescent

Wastelands where shrines for

Teenage girls still stand erect

Even though they’re now thirty-

Something year-old mothers of little

Girls whose heartbreaking tendencies

Lay dormant on their smiling faces

Until awakened by the sound of thirteen chiming

On their clocks.

Soon to wage wars in the hearts of future men

That is why my war is laughing at me because I’m

Now too old to be holding it hostage