English followed by une version en français y una versión en español. As if to make up for the brevity of the principal poem, a second “terrible poem” is appended at the bottom (English only).

Just sayin’

When American fighters sank the boats full of Venezuelans

There were people in those boats

There were people who discharged the weapons

And when the Israelis and Americans dropped bombs on Tehran and Beirut

There were people living in those cities

There were people who flew the planes and unleashed the bombs

While doing research for these fragments, I was, yes, struck that there seems to be no news of how the boats full of Venezuelans were destroyed by US military personnel. Were the boats bombed, strafed, torpedoed? All the news stories say is that the boats were struck. That specific weapons were used and specific people discharged those weapons . . . not a word.

Français

Je voulais juste dire

Quand les chasseurs américains ont coulé les bateaux remplis de Vénézuéliens

Il y avait des gens dans ces bateaux

Il y avait des gens qui ont tiré

Et quand les Israéliens et les Américains ont largué des bombes sur Téhéran et Beyrouth

Il y avait des gens qui vivaient dans ces villes

Il y avait des gens qui pilotaient les avions et qui ont largué les bombes

Español

Solo es que…

Cuando los cazas estadounidenses hundieron los barcos llenos de venezolanos

Había personas en esos barcos

Había personas que dispararon las armas

Y cuando los israelíes y los estadounidenses lanzaron bombas sobre Teherán y Beirut

Había personas viviendo en esas ciudades

Había personas que pilotaban los aviones y lanzaban las bombas

A terrible poem

When you are sent to the front lines

You may be killed or wounded

And that is terrible

And you may find yourself

Killing, or trying to kill, other people

And that is terrible

Drafted after seeing the documentary movie Mr Nobody Against Putin.

— Poems and “artwork” by William Eaton.

The artwork—or shall we call this the coloring in of an artwork?—is a product of an interest in the work of the American painter Franz Kline (1910–1962), including in the untitled, 1956 Kline painting shown at right. Oddly enough, I like how these works of Kline’s are in black and white!