March 18, 2003 - the day before the United States invaded Iraq, beginning a wasteful and destructive process that continues today - was also the day of an anti-war poetry reading, for which Michael Lally wrote the poem in this book. In a series of considered questions, the poem uses vernacular and emotion to turn the tables on those who cause death and suffering. The poem is an indictment of the hypocrisy that runs through current American policies and a way of life that has gone badly astray. Alex Katz's drawings provide an unexpected counterpart to Lally's words; a shared history that includes the New York Schools of painting and poetry enables this interaction.
