According to my richly-embossed PGA Pamphlet,
in the ideal approach shot, the ball should describe
a lazy arc landing on the green fifteen-feet from the flag,
making a slow and inexorable path toward the hole.
I lounge in a white Adirondack chair, puffing my Headly
Grange cigar, on a warm and cloudless spring afternoon,
watching young and middle-aged Americans working
on their approach shots on the manicured practice green.
Meanwhile, young and middle-aged Americans in Al Tafar,
Iraq, are being zipped-up into shiny grey body bags.
Some of these soldiers are missing their noses and ears,
or have Syrian wine corks stuffed into vacant eye sockets.
Should we mere mortals wrestle with such gruesome
disparities or simply leave these matters to Czars, Popes,
and venerable Chieftains who spend their days pacing
the sacred halls of garish cathedrals or musty war rooms?
According to my richly-embossed PGA Pamphlet,
in the ideal approach shot, the ball should describe
a lazy arc landing on the green fifteen-feet from the flag
making a slow and inexorable path toward the hole.
Lynn Elwell is a retired pharmeutical research scientist. He has had more than 55 poems published in literary journals including: Dalhousie Review; Poem; Aretimus; Blue Unicorn; Ship of Fools; Plainsongs; Freshwater and The Trajectory.
