If This Isn't War

Deadline Poet

By Calvin Trillin

This article appeared in the May 1, 2006 edition of The Nation.

April 13, 2006

(A ditty about the "possibility" of civil war in Iraq, sung to the tune of "If This Isn't Love," with apologies to the masters, Yip Harburg and Burton Lane)

If this isn't war,
Just how would you spin it?
If this isn't war,
You haven't been in it.
Militias abound.
Old neighbors are dreaded.
Where you go to pray
Could get you beheaded.
And this isn't war?

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About Calvin Trillin

Calvin Trillin is The Nation's "deadline poet." He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1963 and has written the syndicated weekly column "Uncivil Liberties" since 1986. He has authored many, many books, including Tepper's Not Going Out and Deadline Poet: My Life as a Doggerelist. more...
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