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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 1. 1966.

Holy Cities

Holy Cities

Each
unto itself a Holy City
wherein
bluff and dapper men zealously crusade
against the infidels ..? Yet blind
selfish dirty acts defile
the self-won tribal unities of mankind.
Ah Washington Canberra Wellington
The rolled-back pious
heaven-seeking eyes of senators
and politicians somehow
reflect most movingly
the maggot-eyes of fine young men
who mellow-stiff and crumpled lie
in alien paddy fields
O Washington Canberra Wellington
Some
will say unsunny
matters such as these should not
insinuate themselves in verse
Yet I must say: I do not hold
with those who daily
extract approval from the Lord
to bomb and put a peasant village
to the sword. No
Not all the towns and shattered
villages napalm-drenched and put
to flame (defoliants or phosphor)
can purify
nor rid the stench which emanates
from Holy Cities so-called
Washington Canberra Wellington

Hone Tuwhare