The Inner Part

When they had won the war

And for the first time in history

Americans were the most important people –

 

When the leading citizens no longer lived in their shirtsleeves,

And their wives did not scratch in public;

Just when they’d stopped saying “Gosh!” –

 

When their daughters seemed as sensitive

As the tip of a fly rod,

And their sons were as smooth as a V-8 engine –

 

Priests, examining the entrails of birds,

found the heart misplaced, and seeds

As black as death, emitting a strange odor.