Drew Swinger

I was reading Jeffrey Goldberg’s new piece In The Atlantic— it was the one about President Obama’s decision not To be persuaded by a commonplace That our credibility hinges on the use Of swift and massive lethal force despite Pressure even from his own Cabinet Appalled that Assad shelled Ghouta with sarin gas — When I thought of your poem on the way Of denial, “Via Negativa,” whose lines Celebrated their (your rhyme) reticence. Why am I even talking this way to you? I watched you being buried, yet in the end I wonder if I had ever been your friend.