Kenneth Sherwood

Mudlark Flash No. 2 (1998)

Kenneth Sherwood

Kenneth Sherwood was born outside Boston, Massachusetts, in 1969 and grew up an exile in southern New Hampshire. Undergraduate years at Bates College, Maine, and graduate study in poetics at SUNY Buffalo in which city he was abducted into the the non-tradition of Language poetry. He won a Western NY Writer-in-Residence Award in 1996; his poetry appears in the chapbook That Risk (Buffalo, NY: Meow Press, 1996) and was featured on the Public Radio series LINEbreak as well as the Electronic Poetry Center. He has taught college English for six years; helped establish RIF/T and the EPC; worked with Robert Creeley on an online writing project in a public high school sponsored by Lila Wallace; and is currently absorbed in a project investigating the "Audible Word" in modern and contemporary American poetry. Sherwood can be reached by e-mail at kwsherwood@aol.com.

News That Stays

"...The bombing will begin in five minutes."

Data polls
late percentages approve
most Americans depending
on how the form is
questioned

Error of
margin goes under-
reported sales story
loudspeakers beam satellites
blare

Serious question
4 ex-generals' mistresses
in leather happily
subject
change

Channel consultants
finger the wind--

Data blows

18.ii.98

Clinton Issues Warning: Iraq faces force unless it complies

February 18, 1998

I.

      Washington--President Clinton,
preparing Americans for possible air strikes
against Iraq, said yesterday that "force can
never be the first answer, but sometimes it's
the only answer."
     In a televised nationwide address
from the Pentagon, the commander in chief
stressed again that he prefers a diplomatic
solution to a confrontation with Iraq. But
unless Iraqi President Saddam Hussein gives
"unfettered access" to United Nations weapons
inspectors, Clinton said: "Let there be no doubt,
we are prepared to act."
     The president also cautioned that any
attack would not be risk-free.
     "I know that the people we may call
upon in uniform are ready," Clinton said.
"The American people have to be ready as well."

II.

yesterday can never be the first answer
but sometimes it's
"unfettered" weapons
the commander stressed again
"unfettered" weapons

preparing possible strikes
only prefers a confrontation
prefers a resolution
an attack would not be risk-free
but we are prepared

the uniform people have to be ready
we are prepared
we the people
we

III.

the commander in chief stressed
we are prepared to act
Let there be no doubt
we are prepared
the American people have to be ready
have to be ready
we are prepared
Let there be no doubt
it's the only answer
air strikes
force
it's the only answer
we call upon the American people
we are prepared
the people have to be ready
the president said

IV.

striking Americans for possible preparation
striking Americans

we are nationwide
we are struck
we are addressed

we can never be the first answer
but sometimes we're the only answer

striking Americans for possible address
striking Americans

the solution cautioned
unfettered attack
I know that we have to be risk-free

we are nationwide
we are struck
we are addressed
force is stressed

VI.

address against answers
said said solution
against air
said ready, ready risk-free

address against televised
said said strikes
nationwide air
ready, ready risk-free

commander
confrontation
doubt
ready, ready risk-free

"I
we
force
let

weapons
united
unless
we