The tornado set in motion
a wolf and the wind.
"We're like news," a witness said.
In northwest London,
Tom Brokaw smelled the burning:
"There are Vietnam wars,"
he said.
"I'm drawn to Pearl Harbor."
Twenty-one ships and a long time ago,
while the London Fire Brigade
shuffles through streets
swept by thunder.
"The chief has no lips."
Large, clay dominoes fall,
everybody running;
one car dies young.
"Many plunge,"
Brokaw ruminates,
"but the military dies forever."
And in central London
destroyed churches,
bursts of rain,
and freckled-faced heads
roll in the streets.
Soon,
they'll walk in parades,
leaving behind the dead.
Infamy,
it will be,
the passing of chaos,
attacks to cherish.

MORE BY PAUL A. TOTH, including previous installments of the "Additive Headlines" series.

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