The Exhumation of John Steinbeck

last night John Steinbeck told me in a dream
he would have made a movie of The Grapes of Wrath himself
if only he could have found a way to made blood
look gray in black and white

We talked about war and how it left the young
at the mercy of the old and how after a while
those that were younger couldn't tell the difference
between the two, then he talked about how his son
had covered the war in Vietnam

then I realized we were talking about all wars
and that blood is not in black and white

- Chris Mansel