Poem: "Shangra Lah" (In the Wake of Sri Lanka & Christchurch)

Sri Lanka sounds so exotic
Christchurch is too sacred to say
The only bloodshed I know is in
Cochise County and this ratty paperback about Khe Sanh
So I'll give an exotic name to the space under my bed
When I hide there, from your bombs and bullets,
I'll feel cultured in the dark
I'll feel far away, part of a UN assembly to solve it all
I'll call it Shangra Lah; that's what I'll call
the dark under my bed
I'm the US Ambassador to Shangra Lah
It sounds so exotic, someplace they find rare pearls
I must have heard it in a song
or another worn out war book with outdated maps
I'll be in Shangra Lah when you need me
If you want my thoughts on Peru or the President
you'll have to wait - I'm on diplomatic business,
deep in the dark of Shangra Lah.

-Bud Sturguess,
April 24, 2019