History Wipes its Bloody Mouth, Takes Stock
by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
“The President
Spoke of war as of a magic love potion”
Charles Simic, “Paradise Motel”
“[War] is about sustaining American military primacy, making other states fear and respect us.”
Marco Rubio, New York Times, 3/14/2026
Spoke of war as of a magic love potion”
Charles Simic, “Paradise Motel”
“[War] is about sustaining American military primacy, making other states fear and respect us.”
Marco Rubio, New York Times, 3/14/2026
History looks away as Charon poles his boat and
its one-hundred dead, from Minab across the Styx,
heads for Tehran and more accidental tourists,
en route to a local hell Iranian girls
recognize. The homeland—ours not theirs—is engrossed
and only moderately shocked by carnage.
The homeland can’t be touched, but is amused by what
it is allowed to see on screens, peruse in “fake”
war-news. The homeland knows just what it knows, magic
charms, the abracadabra, conjured for its ease.
Gas under four bucks, a manageable number
of soldiers and planes lost, each enemy warship
sunk, assassin foiled. Our Hawks wish adversaries
turned to client states. History wipes its lips, reports:
Iran War, March, 2026, No Further Notes.
Wendy Taylor Carlisle lives and writes in the Arkansas Ozarks. She has published four books and six chapbooks and is the winner of the 2020 Phillip H. McMath Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Terrain, TAB, Rattle, About Place, and SWWIM. A selection of her writing can be found at wendytaylorcarlisle.com.
Look for three additional poems by Wendy Taylor Carlisle in Issue 3 of Infocalypse, launching July 15, 2026.
Look for three additional poems by Wendy Taylor Carlisle in Issue 3 of Infocalypse, launching July 15, 2026.
Subscribe to my newsletter
Subscribe to my newsletter to get the latest updates and news
Member discussion