Is It All Right Stuart?

RAMROD ROWS</P> How similar they are tall straight rows<BR> of soldiers and corn that grow so fast<BR> you can hear them in the night must step<BR> back quickly to keep from being hit by<BR> the tears of joy that descend while<BR> children become men as we watch<BR> them sleeping.</P> Corn shoots climb like Jack on his beanstalk <BR> to their certain end tassels waving in the<BR> wind like celebrities' handkerchiefs<BR> under the noses of starstruck admirers <BR> hiding so much sweetness in their<BR> budding kernels they begin a descent to<BR> tasteless in the instant of picking <BR> stalks suddenly shorn and stacked in shocks<BR> only if someone notices their loneliness<BR> and binds them for company.</P> Young men<BR>no more sophisticated than puppies grow<BR>from baby to manhood long before experience<BR>makes them mature the methods of war instilled<BR> as they stand ramrod no tassels here <BR> only flags waving and feet marching<BR> 'hut two three four jab and pull <BR> aim and shoot fall and die <BR> human stalks to turn brown <BR> dry up and become fodder.</P>