First Class No. 22. 2003.

by Christopher M. - editor. Four-sep publications, P.O. Box 86, Friendship, Indiana, 47021. www.four-sep.com

Book Review by Michael Basinski

Nice to get this magazine in the mail and better to have squeezed the orange of time to make the time to read it. A great poem by Michael Kriesel called Spiderman Vs. Jesus and there is a grand contribution by lord Locklin and John Bennett of Vagabond up the western coast. And nice to have a little magazine of underground flavor including lots of fiction. Children of the New War Culture by Rey-Philip Genaldo is mighty interesting. My new discovery is a poet named Spiel who wrote one hell of an anti-war poem. I am all for the poem as a weapon of honor. It is right, correct somehow. Why can’t a work of art make its war against war? The lofty dogs of the upper classes and rungs of wealth and power would argue no. But they never go to war. Their sons and certainly not their daughters would ever go to war. They make money off war. Spiel writes:

Does a pint of the blood of the homo at war
weigh less in a jar?
than a pint of blood sapped form his foe?
or a pint of the stuff from your average Joe?
Compare to a pint of dirt or sand,
a pint of gold or a pint of lead.
Weigh a pint of the blood of the homo soldier.
Phone his mother
Her son is dead.