Casual Friday: Reporter/poet in Afghanistan
I’ve been reading through poems lately, and found this one about Afghanistan. It was written by reporter Eliza Griswold, who has been a reporter in Afghanistan, Africa, and Guantanamo. She has a book out: Wideawake Field (2007), published by Farrar Straus & Giroux.
Buying Rations in Kabul
The Uzbek boys on Chicken Street
have never had enough to eat.
They stock from shelf to shining shelf
these G.I. meals, which boil themselves
in added water (bottled, please).
In twenty minutes, processed cheese
on jambalaya, followed by
a peanut-butter jamboree.The boys, polite,
advise on which we might prefer–
beef teriyaki, turkey blight–
and thank us twice for bringing peace
as, meals in hand, we leave the store.
Of course they know that any peace
that must be kept by force
contains another name. It’s war.
A couple more of her poems are available here. I’m sure this one was published in The New Yorker, but I don’t have a publication date handy.
Photos: Xploreoffshore; Indymedia
Poem Copyright 2007 by Eliza Griswold