getting on base

you can't get onto
the army base
without a strip search,
a vehicle search,
dna testing, blood samples,
a questionnaire
filled out of your known
or unknown
evil associates. they want
your name, address, id.
when was the last time you
beat your wife?
get out of the car,
spin around,
stand on your head.
go there, go there.
sit here.
wait.
wait some more.
someone will call your
name.
it smells like an army
base.
cut grass and oil.
bleached to a raw shine.
the dumbness of
green recruits at the gate,
waving you
forward to where you have
to leave
and make a U-turn
and go to the visitors
gate.
we are safe and paranoid
behind these bsrbed
fences, the red white and
blue flapping
stiffly against an empty sky.