Joe Safdie

DOUBLE SONNET

At the beginning
of "The Wizard of Oz"
the fate of a Kansas farm
during the Depression

is vividly rendered --
an early example
of realism keeping company
with the magical.

"We've got to get away --
We've got to run away!"
"But why are you running away?
Well, Professor Marvel,

a homicidal cretin just got re-elected
as President of the United States

* * *

"She's putting her hand on her heart!"
The Munchkins seem to like rhyme
as a poetic device
(which, witch, etc.)

but show an unfortunate Cartesianism
in verifying the death
of the Wicked Witch

as do those who tally
the civilian dead in Iraq

Margaret Hamilton:
Best Actress of All Time
(the problem of evil
in the world, etc.)

from now on you'll be history