Cow 1 is not Cow 2*

Still unable to post poetry in poetic stanza….grrrrrr…..

          Under the rising sun

          The enemy came

          Wearing my face.

After Pearl Harbor, I became the enemy

After 9/11, another enemy.

After Covid-19, another Asian enemy.

Again, another enemy who wears Putin’s face.

 Cow 1 is not Cow 2.*

Putin brutalizes Ukraine

Your Russian neighbor is not Putin.

Careful, careful, Cow 1 is not Cow 2.

My ancestors bombed Pearl Harbor,

I became Cow 1. Yet, Cow 1 is not cow 2.

Such a simple, uncomplicated rule.

* Semanticist S.I. Hayakawa wrote this on the blackboard when I was a young student at his feet. He explained: You are driving along and see a cow. Driving along the road, you see another cow. That cow is not the first cow you saw.