Joseph Gastiger
The Wedding Cake, The Typewriter
Imbecile architects whipped it all up,
trumpeting victories we hadn't won,
spared no expense for that grandiose crypt
in the center of Rome. Oh yes, we'd roar
adoring Caesar on his balcony,
commanding Fight, as legions did–fought in
the snow with boots falling apart, rifles
they couldn't fire. Sure, they were brave, as if
that made any difference at all. Trucks had
no wheels. Our tanks were tin. All we could build
them was this empty boast, this marble
trophy, this gigantic set of false teeth.
Bio
Joseph Gastiger studied at Stony Brook, Iowa, and Colorado State landing at NIU, where he taught classes in freshman comp and coordinated the University Honors Program. After seventeen years, when he just couldn't grade one more paper, he went back to school, at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and has been a pastor of the First Congregational United Church of Christ DeKalb since 2001. Two books of his prosepoemss-Loose Talk and If You So Desire--have been -brought out by Lost Horse Press in Sandpoint, Idaho.