H e a r t S o n s & H e a r t D a u g h t e r s of A l l e n G i n s b e r g

N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 4 : A r c h i v e s E d i t i o n

BOB RIXON

Mea Culpa

Robert McNamara

recalculates his numbers & concludes

it is presently more profitable

to sell books than to trade the life

of one American soldier for the lives

of ten Vietnamese children, each child

representing a gun, a bullet, a bomb,

an artillery shell constructed

& sold at profit to the United States

government

His fault, he admits,

that the numbers did not add up,

the children, the soldiers, the students

at Kent State & Jackson State,

an endless black weeping wall, we have

known this together, O beloved

sisters & brothers, my fathers & mothers,

my children, we are all as we were then,

numbers in McNamara’s inventory.

Lamb of God, Compassionate One,

Desert Prophet, tell me once again,

it was not my fault, say to me,

I am a hair on your head,

your sparrow, a petal in your flower,

do you recognize me? do you remember

my face? am I still wanted,

dead or alive?

5/1995