A Lullaby for UN Worker Lila, Beyond the Blue of the Sky As She Prepares To Sleep in New York

All right, then. Doff the sky-blue helmet to the UN-derbelly

Of the war cynosures, Lil, the Maccoa duck’s bill can wait

For the dawning of a new day—the urge to change the world

Can hang fire. For now, let New York hoods’ sex traffickers

Shake on in their big, un-espied-on obscurities beyond the

First World, ignore basic need for subsidies on corn all over

Resulting in high currency assigned to cheap food. The daily

Massacre against our own poor, subtle genocide, Lil, is not

Without its accompanying lilac protests, Lil, although, Lil,

Sometimes outrageous as anti-Bush shoes . . . but we’ll not

Choose Sylvia Plath and her tulips in Ariel, plotting the pith

While the kids nap. The human development in your dreams,

With mortal delinquents descending like sheep down Amartya

Sen’s hill for an attack from the flanks of the capability well?

Mark time, Lil. Let Sen, seen since on a page on freedom, Lil,

Expanding freedoms, float now above you distributing wealth,

Equitably, sure, along with social services exploring, Lil,

Capacities under our helmets, little sis. O sleep as a bud now.

Tomorrow, window lilacs shall hope anew for sky-blue bliss!