abu ghraib arias by Philip Metres

The Blues of Javal Davis

stay open about drawing
an opinion ████
████████ from
the comforts of your living

room watching CNN
if you were actually on
the other side of CNN
fighting for your life pretty

much on our own we
worked seven days straight
slept seven to a cell
I was told to bang cans

throw cold ████slam doors
I blared heavy metal ████
loud all hours but the prisoners
████████air guitar

I blared Hip Hop Hurray
until they began to bob their heads
And then I played country
they said Allah Allah cut it off

country drove them crazy
CNN says we’re some dumb
poor kids from Garbagecan USA
it didn’t turn out to be that way

abu ghraib arias is a chapbook of poems by Philip Metres. It is hand bound and printed in an edition of 200. The cover paper was made from old military uniforms by Chris Arendt through The Combat Paper Project.

Philip Metres is the author numerous books, including To See the Earth (Cleveland State University, 2008), Come Together: Imagine Peace (Bottom Dog Press, 2008) and Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry on the American Homefront, Since 1941 (University of Iowa Press, 2007). His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, and has garnered an NEA, a Watson Fellowship, two Ohio Arts Council Grants, and the Cleveland Arts Prize in 2010. He teaches literature and creative writing at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Visit him here: http://www.philipmetres.com/

Chris Arendt is a papermaker, paper artist and veteran who served part of his term in the Army at Guantanamo Bay. He also spent 15 months, the length of a modern Army deployment, collecting stories as a homeless veteran. Visit him at The Paper Trail.

The Combat Paper Project teaches returning soldiers the art of papermaking.