clerks

how many of you have seen Star Wars?
the original, the one where the hero,
Luke Skywalker, blows up the Death Star
a spaceship the size of a moon
all the people onboard
the Imperial Stormtroopers
the maintenance workers
and their families
are shredded in a vast explosion

I’m sure many of you
have watched Star Wars
but how many of you
have really seen it?
Luke Skywalker
is a young man on a suicide mission
one day he’s screaming
in the ashes of his family
the next dayhe’s decided
to join the rebel forces
today
we call this blowback

there are very important people
who have very expensive teeth
they sit in front of television cameras
and debate whether blowback exists
but I think anyone with ears to hear
should understand this
people who find their families butchered
are gonna be pissed
we have spent decades leaving loved ones behind
for families and flies to find yet continue to insist
that if we ever talk about it we will use the term
collateral damage
to describe the children mutilated by war
yet somehow we’re surprised that after all this time
someone might find we’ve committed crimes
we must answer for

Skywalker lost two people
in return he killed millions
maybe billions
however many it takes to make
a spaceship the size of a moon
run smoothly
and he never knew if any of them
really wanted to work there
maybe he didn’t care
but to be fair – their boss was a butcher
he blew up planets on behalf of the Empire
so I doubt his employees
were ever allowed to retire
or suffer anything so simple as being fired
and maybe they had only applied to be hired
because they had family to feed
and the only way they could see
to get what them what they need
was to shut up, cross their fingers, and get a job
making lasers n light sabers n praying to their God
that Vader would vent his anger on
some other slob
but then again, maybe not
maybe they never thought about it at all
they just went to work when called
and shopped at the Death Star Mall
and by never really thinking at all
they managed to keep their heads tall
– you can imagine them, right?
saying “we’re the good guys”
“we are just trying to get by”
“just trying to live our lives”
“we can not imagine why
anyone would want us to die”
maybe much like you and I
they could not be bothered

there are photos, testimony, and videos
of the slaughter
of Vietnamese and Middle Eastern
sons and daughters
yet when their sisters and fathers
are willing to start killing
we can not understand why

I ask, have you seen Star Wars
because it’s like
we wash our minds
and our eyes are blind –
because if the guy who is ready to die
has blond hair and blue eyes
then that blowback becomes
the biggest movie of all time