I’m not sure if you noticed, but there’s a country to the south of us called America that produces a lot of lousy television and music performed by under-dressed, talentless teenagers. Americans enjoyed football, pork rinds, firearms and throwing their weight around. That is until 2,801 people died one sunny day on September 11, 2001, and that changed everything.
Nicholas Powers was living in New York on that day and was shocked and awed by America’s reaction to the event. This book chronicles his nation’s tumble into roguishness and reveals his anger at the characters who orchestrated the fall. George W. Bush: “Former cokehead selected by corporate elite to stand on a blood stained altar to speak in a microphone while dodging headlines.” Paul Wolfowitz: “A Washington hedonist who rubs his naked body on a map of the Earth and laughs.”
There are some strong poems in the book, but for the most part, it consists of a satirical paper presented by the “United Stakes” (or “United Steaks”: the staple of freedom-loving American men) discussing their grand strategy in dealing with “Errorism.” Theatre of War is a smart and heated book that will interest anyone who enjoys caustic poetic/political writing.
If you know a thing or two about the United Steaks and don’t hold them in high esteem, the book will appeal all the more. Nicholas Powers suggests there is intelligent life south of the border. (Vincent Ponka)
by Nicholas Powers, $10.95, 127 pgs, UpSet Press, P.O. Box 200340, Brooklyn, NY, 11220, U.S.A.