Forsaken

The former Miss Belgium tells her people
that if they elect her into Parliament
she will pose for them in the nude.
The polls say she is favored by a wide margin
and already I can see her first press conference,
TV cameras trained on her breasts
as she condemns NATO’s missions into Serbia.
Her breasts become small globes that dissolve into
a map of the Balkans and then we are in Kosovo,
hundreds of refugees crossing the border.
On the wall where the press conference is being held
hangs Breughel’s Parable of the Blind.
The sightless men appear to be laughing
as each of them, one by one, stumbles into the river.