School Bus Geopolitics

A flying-white-silk-haired ten-year-old

announces to his class on the bus

that Germany has predicted WWIII

will break out this year. Nah,

a few friends reply, Nuh-uh.

Germany knows, Germany knows!

he insists. One of two adults on the bus,

I don’t know, haven’t read it.

Another boy looks to me, a question

in his eyes. I lean across the aisle,

I read a lot of trustworthy news,

I say, I haven’t seen this report.

He shifts in his seat, shifts his eyes,

repeats words that sound like something

he overheard his parents say

about our oligarch’s plans

to swipe up Greenland, rename the Gulf.

What an idiot, he says, What an idiot.