From our balcony in the palm trees
we could peer out upon the shanty towns
and watch the Army play G.I. Jose
with their jeep mounted searchlights whipping the tin roofs
and their M-16s firing tracers like dragons spitting bullets.
From our balcony it was like sitting in a cinema
while above us a mad projectionist,
playing God with an emery board,
scratched every frame to let there be light.

Now and then the soundtrack of gunfire
mingled with the jazz band at the indoor pool.
Last week a rebel shell struck a putting green,
repairs were affected, but so was morale -
the French locked the maids out of their rooms,
the Swedes checked their liability insurance.
We all broke bread together at the bar buffet
where a bank of TV's showed re-runs of Friends and L.A. Law.
One morning one of our reports was featured on CNN:
You and me walking through a burnt out village
after the Army had dug up a cemetery and looted it.
An American tourist with an alligator on his shirt
recognized us, and applauded.

Already our reports are like scenes from the goddamn movies.
I can't get them out of my head,
(like film clips stuck in a projector).
And with them all I keep seeing this shot of Christ -
He is walking on the river,
thousands of bodies floating by;
and he's stepping from body to body
up the river to the river's source.
When he comes to the source he has come to Calvary,
and selects the natives for the next crucifixion.

Tomorrow we interview the General;
then, it's on to a luncheon at the Presidential Palace.
Fabulous, I tell you, it's fabulous:
a house of cards propped up by jokers.
That's where we come in -
making light of darkness, entertaining the tourists
while soldiers light cigarettes with flamethrowers.

Michael Robeson is an American ex-pat currently living in Roma. He teaches English to Italian students whose desire to learn the lingua franca of the Empire is both a practical necessity and a fantasy of desire, influenced as they are by the power of Leviathan's dream machine - its omnipresent Media. He may be reached at: mikerobeson@yahoo.com