The force that placed us here cannot be trusted

At dinner, Zach asks
about our nation's history, wars.
I say We're taking on everyone, one at a time.

First Britain, then Britain again: "He was the surly English pluck, and there
      is no tougher or truer, and never was, and never will be."
Next Mexico: "Death is indifferent to what hide he tans; life crushes men
      like flies."
The War Between the States: "Well done, Mr. Cromartie. Time now for rest."

Most of Latin America: "Not only humans longed for liberation. All
      ecology groaned for it too. The revolution is also one of lakes, rivers,
      trees, animals."
Then Southeast Asia: "The slight bump the mortars make as they kiss the
      tube goodbye. Then the furious rain, a fist driving home the message:
      Boy, you don't belong here."
Now the Middle East: "A land to be admired like all lands. Harsh
      mountains and deserts, indigenous plants and people, adapted
      ungulates, carnivorous mammals."

Can't forget the Krauts & Nips: "Then I heard the bomber call me in:
      Little Friend, Little Friend, I got two engines on fire. Can you see me,
      Little Friend?"
Nor the Commies: "You mixed up farewell to an epoch with the beginning
      of a new one. I put this book here for you, who once lived, so that you
      should visit us no more."
The original indigenous people say: "In time we'll become prosperous, or
      else we'll become martyrs. The force that placed us here cannot be trusted."

Author's Note

with lines from Walt Whitman, Tristan Corbiere, Sterling Brown, Ernesto Cardenal, Kevin Bowen, Czeslaw Milosz and Ray A.Young Bear

--Whitman, Walt, "Would you hear of an old-time sea fight?", Song of Myself, 35
--Corbiere, Tristan , "Letter from Mexico", trans. William Meredith, Effort at Speech: New and Selected Poems, Northwestern University Press, 1997
--Brown, Sterling A., "Master and Man", The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, HarperCollins Publishers, 1980
--Cardenal, Ernesto, "Ecology", trans. Marc Zimmerman, Flights of Victory/Vuelos de Victoria, Curbstone Press, 1995
--Bowen, Kevin, "Incoming", Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong, Curbstone Press, 1995
--Milosz, Czeslaw, "Dedication", trans. Czeslaw Milosz, New and Collected Poems, The Ecco Press, 2003
--Young Bear, Ray A., "A Drive to Lone Ranger", The Invisible Musician, Holy Cow! Press, 1996