Self-Portrait as Sarah

The news today gives us a senator
who says a military draft will spread
the pain of war more evenly -- and dead
affluent sons among the forfeit poor
will make our representatives more
inclined to think two times before they send
our children up a mountain warpath, led
by some old fool with kindling and a taste for
sacrifice.
            I have to laugh. Not a mild
madonna, I’ve lived long enough to know
that nothing stops the ones whose God says choose.
They lay their Isaacs down as if a child
were something theirs to give away and no
man of them with guts to say I refuse. 

Originally published in Nimrod: 29th Annual Awards Issue, 2007.