Marketing Call

The person you seek is not here.
He was deployed
To Afghanistan
Last year.

So please don’t call me.
He is beyond telephones
And the twenty-first century.

Beyond computers, too,
He might be
If his body lies
In a field of poppies.

Afghan shepherds standing
By a dusty roadside wait
For our troops to come calling
With bread for their plates.

Then to your customer
The shepherds lead our troops.
They cannot describe his death,
Only saying it was youths, a group.

So, before I hang up, I ask
How does it feel to peddle
Trinkets and frauds to others
Who could not prove their mettle
By attempting to settle
The quarrels of savages
Who could scarcely buy bread?

You smile, I hear it, you say:
Gladly I’ll sell vacations to you instead.