Artists in an Empire

If you're an American, you're a citizen
of an imperial nation. A general
and a president (a general and 
a president) gave us fair warning
about a military-industrial complex.
He had helped to defeat one earlier.

If you're an American artist (poet
or painter, musician, novelist . . .),
you're an artist in an imperial
nation, which makes empire
your business by default.

What can be done about this?
This begging question loiters
near you. You see it or hear it
or you don't.  Or you do and don't.

What does an American's art
have to do with this American
empire? That's another question.
The questions pile up like
things an empire builds.


Hans Ostrom, copyright 2012